Using the arts to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 among India's indigenous and nomadic communities

拟议的研究旨在通过多种艺术活动记录、提高认识，并缓解Covid-19对印度最不稳定的土著游牧社区的短期和长期影响；并通过研究和传播社区对大流行的适当反应。为此，它汇集了研究人员、发展实践者、决策者、艺术家和活动家。该项目以莱斯特大学的GCRF试点资助为基础，莱斯特大学正在成功试点一个社区艺术播客，以土著语言和艺术形式记录和传播有关Covid-19的信息。印度是世界上最大的土著人口之一，也被称为阿迪瓦西斯，这是一个自我参考的术语，字面意思是原始居民。超过8000万人被正式归类为表列部落（STs），约1.1亿人被归类为未登记部落（dnt）——根据1871年《犯罪部落法》，在英国殖民统治期间被“通知”为出生罪犯的社区。印度的ST和DNT群体是印度次大陆上最不稳定的人群之一，他们从事体力劳动者、农业和建筑工人、表演者、性工作者和街头艺人等工作，处于印度非正规经济的边缘。与她们的身份有关的耻辱进一步加剧了她们的经济贫困。特别是对DNT群体而言，犯罪的烙印继续推动他们与国家的互动，并对他们获得从学校到食品和保健服务等基本国家供应的能力产生负面影响（Renke等人，2008年；Devy 2006年）。该项目是与巴沙研究与出版中心、布丹剧院和阿迪瓦西声音博物馆合作设计的。阿迪瓦西声音博物馆是一个研究非政府组织、一个基层戏剧团体和一个社区博物馆，它们通过将艺术与基于权利的运动联系起来，为印度土著和游牧群体的权利而努力。一个由12名土著艺术家、策展人和研究人员组成的团队将通过移动数字技术开展一个广泛的项目，记录印度西部地区（也是受疫情影响最严重的地区）DNT和ST社区的具体封锁和封锁后经历；并以当地土著语言制作一系列社区艺术播客，旨在解决该流行病的健康、社会文化和政治经济方面的问题。播客将通过社区社交媒体网络和阿迪瓦西声音博物馆的展览传播。国际观众还可以通过一个专门的项目网站获得这些视频的英文字幕。该项目将为大流行病背景下的社会参与艺术实践制定可转让的方法。这包括通过社交疏远和虚拟平台翻译戏剧形式；并进一步重新定义社区博物馆的角色，使其成为在危机时期帮助社会的关键机构。作为该项目的一部分进行的研究还将与发展顾问Khanna博士合作，为政策干预和报告提供信息，旨在加强土著权利和社会问责机制，并根据社区的需要制定公共卫生干预措施。政策干预将侧重于不稳定的公民身份、流动性和权利之间的关系，挑战在福利和人权方面的静坐主义偏见。鉴于2019冠状病毒病（Covid-19）和印度新的公民身份法案构成了两个相互交织的紧迫问题，这一点尤为重要。印度的新公民身份法案可能使许多土著群体（特别是流动的st和dnt）成为无国籍群体。鉴于2019冠状病毒病暴露并加深了现有的不平等现象，本项目将利用艺术和文化作为社区建设和复原力的机制，为减轻疫情对高度脆弱人群的影响做出贡献。

The proposed research aims to document, create awareness, and ease the short and long-term impact of Covid-19 among India's most precarious indigenous nomadic communities through multiple arts activities; and by researching and communicating community appropriate responses to the pandemic. To do so, it brings together researchers, development practitioners, policy makers, artists and activists. The project builds on a pilot GCRF grant at the University of Leicester, which is successfully trialling a community arts podcast to document and spread information about Covid-19 in indigenous languages and art forms. India counts one of the largest indigenous populations in the world also known as adivasis, a term of self-reference that literally means original inhabitant. More than 80 million people are officially classified as Scheduled Tribes (STs) and around 110 million people as DeNotified Tribes (DNTs) - communities that were 'notified' as born criminals during British colonial rule under the 1871 Criminal Tribes Act. India's ST and DNT groups are among the most precarious populations in the subcontinent working as manual labourers, agricultural and construction workers, performers, sex workers and street entertainers at the margins of India's informal economy. Their economic poverty is further compounded by the stigma associated with their identity. For DNT groups in particular, the brand of criminality continues to drive their interaction with the state and negatively affects their ability to access basic state provisions from schools to, to food and health services (Renke et al. 2008; Devy 2006). The project has been co-designed in partnership with Bhasha Research and Publication Centre, Budhan Theatre and the Adivasi Museum of Voice - a research NGO, a grassroots theatre group and a community museum with a track record of working for the rights of India's indigenous and nomadic groups by linking art and rights-based campaigns. A team of twelve indigenous artists, curators and researchers will undertake an extensive project of documentation of the specific lockdown and post-lockdown experiences of DNT and ST communities in the western India region (also the worst affected by the pandemic), through mobile digital technology; and produce a series of community arts podcasts in local indigenous languages aimed at addressing the health, socio-cultural and politico-economic dimensions of the pandemic. Podcasts will be disseminated through community social media networks and through an exhibition at the Adivasi Museum of Voice. They will also be accessible with English subtitles for international audiences through a dedicated project website. The project will develop transferrable methodologies for socially engaged arts practices in the context of the pandemic. This includes translating theatre forms through socially distant and virtual platforms; and further reconceptualising the role of community museums as key agents that can assist societies in times of crisis. The research undertaken as part of the project will also inform a policy intervention and report in collaboration with development consultant Dr. Khanna aimed at strengthening indigenous rights and social accountability mechanisms, and at devising public health interventions based on communities' needs. The policy intervention will focus on the relationship between precarious citizenship, mobility and rights, challenging the sedentarist bias in approaches to welfare and human rights. This is especially crucial in the context of the two intersecting urgencies posed by Covid-19 and India's new citizenship bill, which threatens to make many indigenous groups (especially mobile STs and DNTs) stateless. As Covid-19 exposes and deepens existing inequalities, this project will contribute to alleviating the effects of the pandemic on highly vulnerable populations by employing the arts and culture as mechanisms for community building and resilience.