Rekindling girls’ dreams through the lens of art

In December, workers from the Vikalp Sansthan, which is based out of village Badgaon Bandh in Udaipur district, began a wall painting initiative for girls in the Gogunda block of Udaipur. They met with the students in Jaswantgarh, aged 10-18 years of age. Their principal, a poised, confident woman, was extremely helpful and supportive and strongly encouraged the girls to participate. 

The representatives from Vikalp were unprepared for the cultural barrier of the sheer lack of arts programming in schools. But the idea and the feeling of bringing art as an expression was there. 

For these girls, the future is everything. Vikalp’s curriculum involves workshops and activities surrounding the theme of dreams. The facilitators asked the girls to close their eyes and imagine themselves in one year, five years, or ten years. 

When the girls were told that their paintings were going on the school walls, their excitement grew. Inside the school were seven pillars, and it was decided that it would be perfect to transfer the girls’ vision of their dreams onto them.

This is how each pillar became a woman in a different job — teacher, lawyer, businesswoman, doctor, dancer, police officer and soldier. There was a calm and silence as the students got absorbed in the painting process. 

More and more girls joined to paint a section, pour out more paint for others, and wash brushes. It was the best feeling for the representatives of Vikalp to hear from the girls how much they enjoyed the process; especially given how unfamiliar they were with art at first.

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The lead image on top shows the girl students engaged in wall painting.

Jahnavi Zondervan is an American India Foundation Banyan Impact Fellow, working with Vikalp Sansthan.