Art finds andolan

Its easy to become an activist when the roof above your head is on shaky ground Housing activists Jameela Begam Eathakula 36 and Santosh Thorat 42 have grown up with the sight of bulldozers behaving like earthquakes on their homes They are the residents of Sathenagar in Mankhurd M Ward which according to Thorat has the lowest standard of living in the world The human flesh that is left over after surgeries is burnt here at an incinerator run by SMS Envoclean he saysThe smoke from that chimney is killing us Mumbais entire garbage is dumped here in nearby Deonar The TB here is thirdstage From every corner there is pollutionIn 2004 80000 houses across the city had been razed as part of a demolition drive approved by late CM Vilasrao Deshmukh which rendered nearly three lakh people homeless Thorats very wellmade home was demolished too It was made of wood two floors fourfoothigh walls tiles he says in Mumbaiyya Hindi Eathakula in chaste Hindi adds Activists such as Kaushalya Salve Mohan Chauhan and Raju Bhise used to come here and tell us Your rights have been abusedSantosh Thorat Dr Vyjayanthi Rao Manisha Agarwal and Jameela Begam Eathakula at Sathenagar PicsSayyed Sameer AbediYou will have to stand up for your house After that people started protesting together and Medhatai Patkar came onboard They became involved with Patkars Ghar Bachao Ghar Banao movement and to this day continue to attend rallies related to the cause But by 2015 their fight had taken a different turn I started thinking that struggle alone isnt worth it says ThoratAt the same time they became close to cultural anthropologist Dr Vyjayanthi Rao who teaches at City University of New York and through her architects Manisha Agarwal and Shantanu Poredi from Mumbai and Anand Patel and Aparajita Basu from Ahmedabad They came together to form Samooha We began to protest through art says ThoratFirst public outingSamoohas first artistic engagement was at the KochiMuziris Biennale KMB in 2016 at the invitation of thencurator Sudarshan Shetty Called On Stage Sathenagar Here it was an interactive installation that showed a mini version of Sathenagar It was an interpretation of a framework with bamboo as that is one of the basic materials used to build a new settlement says Agarwal We wanted to create a framework for the people of Sathenagar capturing their stories performances and cultural aspects of living as a community There were films made by Santosh and AparajitaThere were photographers Shankar Mote from here and Rajesh Vora who took two sets of photos how an insider looks at it and how an outsider looks at Sathenagar And there were some very interesting spatial learnings The structure and frame of each house in essence is similar but each space within is completely different The materials the doors the stairs to reach up every element and the way its crafted is with a certain rationale or flexibility It was interesting to see and recreate everything that was accommodated within that frame And then there were performancesSathenagar is named after Annabhau Sathe a Dalit folk poet and writer whose image is omnipresent in the area One exhibition accompanying the installation carried the cover art of his novels What we found here was that theres an interest beyond popular culture and Bollywood says Rao People were reconnecting with forms like tamaasha and lavani We took two lavani performers and reconnected to Annabhau Sathe who has written some lavanis as wellA freeflowing collectiveSamooha doesnt have a fixed mission or fixed personnel Its very flexible and really open to anybodys collaboration and input says Rao We havent even thought as far ahead as calling ourselves an institution When asked they say in one voice that they werent thinking of a collective they just found common groundThe whole idea is to learn from each other says Rao Caste is divisive in India in general But the conversations that we were having were about not losing the identity that caste has given to each of us but thinking of it as a possible unifier Theres a very rich intellectual and cultural life that is thriving here We need to think beyond our own communities Why should uppermiddleclass folks like us be concerned about making something together Our society will continue to remain divided unless we do things together unless we figure out a way of collaborating and actually making something togetherSince KMB Samooha has achieved two feats it has created an afterschool programme called Annabhau Sathe Manav Vikas Seva Sangh called Amavas in short with help from Tata Institute of Social Sciences and a media centre that includes a television set computer and projector Around 120 kids from Class IX attend the programme They kids need to learn how to live life We dont want a beggars child to become a beggar says ThoratThe programme was created by a desire to provide a certain framework for pedagogy and education which goes beyond our school system says Rao Any way that fosters creativity should be part of the DNA of Samooha For instance the media centres role is to encourage talent in Sathenagar The children of rickshaw drivers and carpenters can dance or sing or act says Thorat Through digital mediums we want our stories to go out and their talent to get a platformFor those living in Sathenagar the path Eathakula has taken can be the one to follow When I was involved in andolans I was only Std X pass she says But now I have done BSW Bachelors in social work from IGNOU and Im pursuing MSW We take classes every fortnight in Sathenagar to explain to the people their constitutional rights child rights and gender rights But Samooha is important because to create employment and employed in slums like these is very difficult Activism cant create employmentA brief historySathenagar was established in 1982 after Babasaheb Gokhale rounded up members of the Matang community into one area in Mankhurd Today it has about 15000 homes Samoohas next move is to collaborate with members from Van Alen Institute in New York which comprises architects and designers who visited the neighbourhood in November 2018Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates