Q.

How can arts and culture act as an enabler to motivate and transform
the lives of the marginalized. Illustrate with examples:The spirit to bring about a transformation is the sole driving factor to
women empowerment, while it can be delivered through the domain of
one profession, be it culture or arts.
Ms. Mita Vashishth, a veteran Hindi Cinema actress is the live example of
this ideology. She discussed the role of art and theatre in transforming the
lives of victims of sexual crimes. These victims were trafficked young
minors who were rescued from city brothels. She conducted a chance
theatre workshop for these trafficked minors in a remand home in Mumbai.
Her association with the cause was so deep-seated that she ended up
conducting these workshops for four long years. This initiative was aimed
to enable the physical and mental restorative process of these young girls.
She began with the pure though that it was necessary to fit in together the
broken pieces of their lives. Instead of subjecting them to sympathy, she
wanted to induce normalcy in their lives by treating them like the kids of
their age. Dance and martial arts classes became the medium of her
service delivery. It was through this process, that she tried to help all of
them regain confidence in themselves, overcome the abuse they faced
and open their mind-body-heart to a fresh world altogether.