New Delhi   

Adding colour to lives of leprosy patients

Staff Reporter

Art school gives them a life of dignity, and a vocation

NEW DELHI: Probably the only art school for leprosy-affected people in the world, this small unit working on the belief that art can trounce leprosy has managed to add colour and ensure a life with dignity for its students.

Students from the school are now preparing for their first international exhibition and are currently in the Capital exhibiting their work at the residence of the Austrian Ambassador here.

Started by a multimedia artist from Austria, Werner Dornik, who first came to India in 1977 and was moved by the condition of the leprosy-affected people he saw in Varanasi, the school is now the lifeline of the people attached to it.

"What I saw in India broke my heart and I realised that with as little as ten dollars a day, a man afflicted with leprosy could live a life of dignity. I decided to help these people here and donated all the money I earned through my exhibitions for their treatment and rehabilitation. However, after the Indian government made the treatment of leprosy free, rehabilitation still remained the big question and that was when the concept of the school came up," says Dornik.

In a short span of time the Bindu Art School in Chennai has groomed 17 full-time professional artists cured from leprosy who are continuing this movement by sponsoring seven more leprosy-cured patients by generating revenues through their own work of art. Under this one-of-its-kind process far away from the concept of charity, the school continues to flourish.

Currently four of its students -- Uma, Sekar, Rani and Arumugam -- are exhibiting their work here in Delhi.

These works will be displayed next at "Kunsthalle", one of the renowned art galleries of Vienna. Thereafter the exhibition will travel through Austria, Europe and the United States. Some of these artists will also be invited to be present during the exhibition at Vienna in Austria.

Some of the big names in the Indian art scene including A.H. Raza, Arpana Caur, Jogen Chowdhury, A. Bala and Sohan Qadri have pitched in to hold workshops for these artists.

"Through this art school we want to work towards improving the living conditions and the perspectives of development, concerning leprosy-affected people in India," said Dornik, adding: "This school teaches the affected people to assimilate their experience of life in an artistic way -- in painting pictures. We organise sale of these paintings so that people can afford their cost of living and also help others take care of themselves."

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