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、提高认识并缓解新冠肺炎在印度最不稳定的土著游牧社区中的短期和长期影响；并通过研究和交流社区对这一流行病的适当应对措施。为了做到这一点，它将研究人员、发展从业者、政策制定者、艺术家和活动家聚集在一起。该项目建立在莱斯特大学全球文化遗产基金的一项试点拨款的基础上，该大学正在成功试行一个社区艺术播客，以土著语言和艺术形式记录和传播有关新冠肺炎的信息。印度是世界上土著人口最多的国家之一，也被称为adivsis，这是一个自我参照的术语，字面意思是原始居民。超过8000万人被正式归类为在册部落(STS)，约1.1亿人被归类为非公示部落(DNT)--根据1871年《刑事部落法》，这些部落在英国殖民统治期间被作为出生罪犯被通知。印度的ST和DNT群体是印度次大陆上最不稳定的人群之一，他们在印度非正规经济的边缘从事体力劳动、农业和建筑工人、表演者、性工作者和街头艺人的工作。与他们的身份相关的耻辱进一步加剧了他们的经济贫困。特别是对DNT群体来说，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卫生服务的基本国家供应的能力产生负面影响(Renke等人)。2008年；Devy 2006)。该项目是与巴沙研究和出版中心、布丹剧院和阿迪瓦西之声博物馆--一个研究非政府组织、一个草根戏剧团体和一个社区博物馆--合作设计的，该博物馆有通过将艺术和以权利为基础的运动联系起来为印度土著和游牧群体争取权利的记录。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DNT和ST社区(也是受疫情影响最严重的地区)的具体封锁和封锁后的经历；并用当地土著语言制作一系列社区艺术播客，旨在解决这一流行病的健康、社会文化和政治经济问题。播客将通过社区社交媒体网络和阿迪瓦西之声博物馆的展览进行传播。它们还将通过一个专门的项目网站向国际观众提供英文字幕。该项目将在大流行病的背景下，为社会参与的艺术实践制定可转让的方法。这包括通过社会距离和虚拟平台转换戏剧形式；进一步重新定义社区博物馆作为关键机构的作用，以便在危机时期帮助社会。作为该项目的一部分进行的研究还将为与发展顾问Khanna博士合作的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。政策干预的重点将是不稳定的公民身份、流动性和权利之间的关系，挑战福利和人权方法上的定居偏见。在新冠肺炎和印度新公民法案构成的两个相互交织的紧急情况下，这一点尤其重要，该法案有可能使许多土著群体(特别是流动STS和DNT)成为无国籍人。随着新冠肺炎暴露和加深现有的不平等现象，该项目将利用艺术和文化作为社区建设和复原力的机制，从而有助于减轻这一流行病对高度脆弱人群的影响。

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.