Art Therapy: Specially Abled Children, Women At Maharashtra's Care Home Mould Clay Ganesha's For Upcoming Ganpati Festival

As the Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations get nearer, many homes are preparing for the ten-day-long festivities which will be adorned with hundreds and thousands of Ganpati idols displayed in different parts of the state.

Among them homes are the Swadhar care home for the specially-abled, which has been training a few of its inmates to mould the Ganpati idols for the festivities. Having learnt the art of intricately designing every clay idol and painting them up, the care home intends to sell the idols in the market.

Working Beyond Barriers

Twelve specially abled children and women living at the care home located in Osmanabad district of Maharashtra are excelling in the art of moulding idols of Lord Ganesha. The inmates were found to be good at moulding clay and mud, after which two people from the care centre worked with them to teach them how to create idols out of it.

Making figurines and idols out of the mud is no simple task, and it gets a little bit more challenging for the specially-abled folk. However, these inmates have been breaking through these barriers and have carefully picked up on each step, from making the body parts out of clay to painting the finished product. Every year, the home attempts to make around 400 idols, but only half of them reach the market spaces.

Bharat Kamble, head of the differently-abled wing of the Osmanabad Zilla Parishad's social justice department, commented that,

"Their idols are as beautiful as made by professional artists".

Improving Their Quality Of Life

As per the report by The Print, the care home's head Shahaji Chavan had said that many among the inmates living there are, "Orphans brought here from big cities like Pune and Mumbai". The care centre houses about 110 girls and women, the majority of them having been brought to the home with serious ailments.

Being autistic and specially-abled, many of them were not able to express their condition or even assess their needs rightly. With time and a lot of patience, the care home has been able to impart lessons to the inmates and identify their requirements accordingly. Apart from art, the inmates are also provided different therapies to help them understand life better and stand on their feet.

Over 60 of them are now literate, and almost all are engaged in a range of activities related to their areas of interest. The quality of their life has improved remarkably, and they have been able to contribute to society in their own ways through their engagement in many of these activities.

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