The “Immunity Wall”
An Art Box Project to raise health awareness among Dharavi Residents

Dharavi is known to the world as the largest slum in Asia, and one of the largest in the world—right in the midst of India’s financial capital, Mumbai. Many of Dharavi’s million-odd residents, however, are active contributors to a thriving craft-based informal economy. They are leather workers, weavers, potters, and wood workers; Dharavi’s plastic and metal and glass industries often generate products for export. But workers in these industries remain unorganized, living and functioning with extremely poor infrastructures and social support-systems.

SNEHA (http://www.snehamumbai.org/) has been working closely with the women in Dharavi, helping them to enhance their skills and become more independent about using their creative abilities.

One of SNEHA’s initiatives is the “Dharavi Biennale” (http://dharavibiennale.wordpress.com/): both a nod to the world’s great art Biennales, and a positioning of Dharavi as one of the world’s unsung art-creation spaces. The objective of this Biennale is to spread internal awareness about healthcare using art. Several Art Boxes have been created in collaboration with artists or designers along with the women of Dharavi to help the residents understand and learn the importance of health and hygiene. Here is a glimpse of an Art Box initiative by Fatema Ranpura, on understanding immunity.

How it Started:
While walking on the streets of Dharavi, exploring its culture, Fatema stumbled upon a pile of plastic waste from Injection Moulding factories in the area. She picked up a few pieces, and was shocked to see that they bore uncanny resemblance to body parts and internal organs. Some were even like enlarged microscopic views of cells.

This gave her the idea of using these many bits of plastic waste to draw attention to the human body, its interior structures and organs, as a means of artistically representing the human immune system.

The Plan:
Fatema initiated a collaborative “art box” project with the residents of Dharavi to build an installation that depicts the importance of a strong immune system using foldable metal bed, plastic waste, transparent IV pipes, and wool. The idea was to create an “Immunity Wall,” as the immune system in our body acts like a "wall" protecting us from infections and diseases.

Three-day Workshop:
The interaction at Sneha’s workshop space started with some introductions, where the participants shared what they aspired to be and what they do normally to take care of their health. It was a mixed group of women, most of them either housewives or young college students. A few women wanted to be dancers, or painters, singers; others were happy managing their kids and family. Some health measures that they took included eating healthy foods, avoiding street food (a sentiment echoed by several children present, too, interestingly), exercising regularly, drinking plenty of water and eating fruits.

Following the introductory session, Dr. Yojana Ghokle, an immunologist, gave a talk about the Immune System. She explained what an immune system is, its function, the reasons why our immune systems become weak, the effects of a poor immune system, and counsel on how to build a strong immune system.

Next, Fatema briefed the participants about the agenda of the workshop, and the women were all set to get their hands on building the “Immunity Wall.” And build they did. Onto one side of an old bedframe, they attached plastic bits and IV tubing in a collage that represented the body’s protective defense against infections. They innovated with materials and fastening techniques, with some guidance on color and placement from Fatema.

On the other side of the bed frame were a series of woolen pom-poms. These were made by a woman who was particularly adept at making them, and who took it upon herself to direct the college students and other children around to create more pom-poms. These represented the attack of bacteria on the wall of immunity. Both the body’s immune system and the external agents represented by the pom-poms were thus shown in a tense battle on either side of the bed frame.