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The M East Ward, parts of which are colloquially referred to as Govandi – located on the north-east edge of this megacity, is home to Mumbai’s largest resettled population. A land of constant displacement, this ward, throughout its history, has been grossly neglected with over 70% of its population living in slums, having the lowest Human Development Index (HDI) of 0.05 in the city (in 2009), and with the average life expectancy of 39 years (as opposed to Maharashtra’s 73.5 years). The neighborhood is infamously identified as unsafe and criminalized. Cases of theft, murders, domestic violence, suicides are routinely occuring. They often find the need to hide their addresses in order to get admissions in schools or be selected for a job.
We believe that arts and culture is an integral part of urban development that is overlooked in city building but has the power to bring cultural, social, and infrastructural improvements, especially in neighborhoods that don’t have access to adequate basic infrastructure due to marginalization.
With this as our guiding principle, Govandi Arts Festival (GAF) is a collective vision and demonstration of the residents of this neighborhood to create a cultural legacy for the M East Ward and for the city of Mumbai itself. It is a cultural movement that celebrates the spirit and resilience of the people of Govandi through performative and visual arts.
As a community-led arts festival, Govandi Arts Festival is rooted in creative expression to reclaim the narrative about their neighborhood, which is much more than just a ‘ghetto’. The vision for Arts Festival emanated through eight years of deep, participatory work with the community living in a Resettlement & Rehabilitation colony, Natwar Parekh Compound in Govandi under its sister project Neighborhood Regeneration Project with Community Design Agency.
It has emerged from the community choosing to connect, create and advocate with the rest of Mumbai on better infrastructure and access to better quality of life through sustained creative interventions.
Our vision: A community-led arts and culture festival that reclaims & transforms the marginalized socio-spatial narrative and infrastructure of Govandi in Mumbai.
Our mission: To develop an alternate lens & pedagogy of engagement for Govandi which celebrates resilience and creativity at a local and global scale rather than reductionary exposure as a place of have-nots. Through that advocate and demonstrate the role of Arts and Culture as a non negotiable to urban infrastructure.
Joining the Global Cultural District Network will add great value to our project in Govandi by bringing in a global network of practitioners to a local project from the Global South. This will increase our visibility and credibility, and bring opportunities for international collaboration and cross cultural learning. Our experience of engaging with the team of GCDN has been very fruitful and the 10th annual convening strengthened our belief to formalise this partnership and become a member!
