J.D. Birla Institute Department of Interior Design BEAUTIFICATION OF THE WALLS AT TOLLUGUNGE SLUMS

J.D. Birla Institute

Department of Interior Design

BEAUTIFICATION OF THE WALLS AT TOLLUGUNGE SLUMS

While India’s economy continues to boom over the last few decades, its 360 million citizens live in the most dilapidated conditions possible. Infact about one in six Indian city residents lives in an urban slum with unsanitary conditions that are ‘unfit for human habitation,’ according to the first complete census of India’s vast slum population (2013). In Kolkata alone, there are over 70,000 people who are homeless and almost one-third of the total population live in slums.

Most of the slums are plagued with lack of essential civic amenities and are associated with problems of cleanliness, garbage, proper sanitation & sewerage, health care, poor electricity connections, non-availability of safe drinking water, clean toilets etc. It was felt that some upgradation in the aesthetics of the slums would uplift the environment and provide some solace to the slum dewellers from their dirty and filthy surroundings.  

Thus, under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan (Clean India Mission), the Interior Designing students of J.D. Birla Institute under the NSS banner took up an initiative to beautify the walls of the slums with painting at Tollygunge (Ward 89). The young artists painted the walls with beautiful sketches and cartoons. They involved the children of the slums and painted alphabets and numerical tables on the walls to help them learn. Children from the slum very enthusiastically took-up this assignment and the adults extended immense support as well.

About the J.D. Birla Institute: 

J.D. Birla Institute, Kolkata is a private unaided College affiliated to Jadavpur University, Kolkata since 1963. The late Smt. Sushila Devi Birla established a college for girls to provide scientific education to young women from Kolkata's conservative family. Over the 50 glorious years, JDBI has grown with the needs and demands of the changing times. The Institute has made rapid strides over the decades to emerge as a centre of excellence. The name was changed to J.D. Birla Institute in 2002 with the launch of a satellite campus to house the co-educational Department of Management. Today the Institute, which has an `A' grade from National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), provides graduate, post-graduate degrees under affiliation to Jadavpur University, the NAAC peer team awarded the Institute with ‘A’ Grade (CGPA – 3.11), the highest possible grade, highlighting the Institute’s constant quest for self-improvement and excellence. Currently we are preparing for its third cycle of assessment.