Mumbai: Soon, if you are travelling on one of India’s express trains, you may have an alternative to looking out of the window or at your phone screen: you can feast your eyes on some very special art, paintings made by disabled artists who have created the works with brushes held with their feet or their mouths.
To start with, Western Railway has launched the project with around 40 paintings distributed in the First Class compartments — seven chair cars and one executive chair car — of the Mumbai–Ahmedabad Shatabdi Express. The plan is to extend it to other Shatabdi, Rajdhani and Duranto trains. If passengers appreciate the art, the scheme, the scheme could find a place in other trains.
A senior official said that the idea had come up around six months ago. “We have been working on different things so that passengers feel energetic while travelling in our trains. We came up with the idea to introduce such talents as a social cause, and to help passengers know of such talents.”
Speaking to The Hindu , Mukul Jain, Divisional Railway Manager, WR, said, “Our intention is to make the journey for passengers more interesting and at the same time collaborate for a cause. In this case, our association is with the Indian Mouth and Foot Painting Artistes [IMFPA].”
The pictures displayed in the coaches are not originals but high-quality digital prints purchased from IMFPA at prices starting from ₹1000, depending on the canvas size. The prints bear the name of the artist and a small message alongside.
A new track for artists
“This is for the first time that our paintings will be showcased in railway coaches,” Paresh Padia, Senior Manager, IMFPA, said. “We have given over 100 paintings.” He said IMFPA has around 25 artists creating the paintings, which are sold for anything between ₹40,000 to several lakhs.
The artists are happy to earn more, and recognise that their work reaches a wider audience. “I feel people will appreciate our work ,” Bandenawaz Nadaf, one of the artists, said. “The passengers who will see our paintings in the railway coaches will get inspired by us and will feel that even people like us can do something to survive.” Another artist, Nadeem Riyasat Ali Sheikh, said, “This is very touching when people come and appreciate the work. I just want people to change their thinking about handicapped people.”
Celebrating India
While the paintings will be placed only in First Class coaches, the Railways is also brightening up the journeys of passengers in the Second AC and Third AC compartments with photographs of India’s proud moments, drawn from the armed forces, Hindi cinema studios and the Board of Control for Cricket in India. Mr. Jain is particularly pleased with the prints of relief and rescue operations by the armed forces. “We have CDs containing nearly hundred photographs from the armed forces and have permission to use them. This will surely inspire our passengers and they will also proud of their country.”
