Participating in anganwadi protest — Guttuso and Picasso

An art gallery has sprung up at protest site, courtesy of artists and children of workers

  Amid scores of women anganwadi workers protesting outside Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s residence in Civil Lines, some unexpected but familiar faces are making their presence felt. Prominent among them are Sicilian weavers from the 1800s, American activist Mother Jones, Sulphur mine workers of Italy from the early 1900s, and Savitribai Phule.  On one side of the protest site, a unique art exhibition is gaining traction with drawings and paintings of struggles of workers from different parts of the world hanging from a piece of rope. There are also paintings made by a group of artists present at the site and by children of women workers who are coming to the protest.  The protesters had earlier set up a small library at the site but the books were seized by the police, according to the workers.  Pointing to one set of paintings, Sunny, 33, one of the founders of Progressive Artists’ League which has put up their artwork at the site, said: “These drawings are by German artist Kathe Kollwitz about Sicilian weavers’ revolt. The first one shows their situation back then, the second one is about weavers dying due to their situation, the third one shows their meetings, then a gherao, and the last one depicts their failure and deaths due to it.”  Taking about another painting of a group of women, he said, “This is by Renato Guttuso (Italian painter) about a protest by women against sulphur mining in Italy in early 1900s after a cave-in at a mine killed many workers.”  Next to it was an anti-war painting by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso.  A banner hanging below the paintings read “ Sadakein hamari gallery hain (Streets are our gallery)“. “This was inspired from the Mexican mural movement in which artists tried to take art from museums to the streets,” Mr. Sunny said. 

Apart from these paintings, a new ecosystem has also evolved around the protest: two women have set up a stall selling tea and snacks, a tanker belonging to the Delhi Jal Board is stationed at the site providing drinking water to the protesters, street vendors are selling eatables and fruits and a man is selling ch aat out of his bicycle. A painting done by a group of children of workers on a 3ft x 3ft piece of white cloth is hung from a yellow Delhi Police barricade at the site. The children have drawn red flags, women, police barricades and the words “ hai hai, Delhi Police ” on the cloth. Next to the paintings, six children sitting on a blue tarpaulin sheet were busy drawing new images at a makeshift creche set up by workers protestesting at the site.  “We are just trying to make them appreciate different colours and shapes. Sometimes, we ask them to paint some shapes but usually they draw or paint whatever they like,” said Vinod Karki, 25, another member of the artists’ league.  “The idea behind exhibiting art and drawings from the past is to engage with the workers and let them know about other workers’ struggles. We had also staged a play and are planning another one called ‘Doll House’ later this week,” he added.