Kannagi Nagar children’s paintings to be exhibited at Nift

CHENNAI:

Paintings

by

children

from relocated families in

Kannagi Nagar

slum tenements will be displayed at National Institute of Fashion Technology (

NIFT

) in Taramani here on Friday, on the occasion of the Republic Day.

Proceeds from the sale-cum-exhibition would go for the construction of toilets in a government school in Kannagi Nagar, said Adyar deputy commissioner of police Rohit Nathan. Chennai city police commissioner A K Viswanathan will inaugurate the exhibition at 11am.

The exhibition is an initiative of the Ink-Link Charitable Endowment Trust, run by Saswati Sen Gupta.

Saswati has been closely monitoring the residents of Kannagi Nagar for the past four years. When she first visited Kannagi Nagar, she realised that most children were facing issues since they came from broken families -- either their father or mother was involved in some criminal cases and in prison.

“When we spoke to DCP Rohit Nathan, he assigned Kannagi Nagar police inspector T Vivekanandan and boys’ club trainer Tamil. We decided to teach paintings to students in the Government Higher Secondary School in Kannagi Nagar since art has healing powers. I spent around 20 days in November and December and 35 students - 17 boys and 18 girls – painting,” she said.

The government higher secondary school in Kannagi Nagar doesn’t have an exclusive toilet for girls. “We are planning to build a toilet for girls on the school campus with the fund raised from the sale of paintings in the exhibition,” she said.