Pandies' Theatre, a Delhi-based activist theatre group, has been training marginalized children to create theatre that articulates their perspective on their problems. The group, using theatre as a politically empowering tool, does not envisage the role of theatre as merely one of confidence building or personality development but a methodology that enables those on the margins to make contributions to the social process, a space usually denied to them by the powerful. The Pandies’ Theatre group was associated with the Adolescent project in Sarwar with a focus on empowering communities on the margins so that they can articulate their perspectives and also making the mainstream acknowledge their contribution as important. It has been a longterm partnership. Pandies' Theatre organised several workshops over the project period in which number of adolescents participated.
The first two workshops were in Sarwar village, Arain distirct. They were conducted in residential camps. The purpose of these workshops was to teach children the nuances of theatre performances and to enable them to articulate their points of view on issues concerning their existence. Family, gender relations, education and government policy: all came up for discussion and critique.
The second set of workshops took place in June 2008, from 22nd June ending with a public performance in another village on the 28th.
The third foray, facilitated by AAEA in their office premises, was in a De-addiction and Home-placement programme for platform children run by NGO, Khilti Kaliyan.
Ajmer Adult Education Association
Kanta Marwah Bhawan,
Vidyut Marg, Shastri Nagar Extention, AJMER 305006
