After the brainstorming session, as a class we all came up with some problem prone area. We discussed with our Studio Two coordinator Mr. Tarundeep Girdhar. After the discussion, I had four topics in my hand which had potential of working further. Namely;
1. To Sensitize visually disabled people about Indian spices.
2. Indian Spices and their Medical uses.
3. Teaching experiments to rural children with available material in their surroundings.
4. Awareness about Scout and Guide teaching to children.
Later I started researching on all these topics one by one. For my topic 'To Sensitize visually disabled people about Indian spices', I went to the place called 'Blind People Association' at Vastrapura to get insights from the visually challenged people, on my topic, 'To Sensitize visually disabled people about Indian spices'. I met Mrs. Kanchanben Patel (Secretary), who herself is partially blind. She took me to these group of women, who come from lower middle class, who work there. They are 10 in a group. All are housewives, having children and grandchildren. These women come here to work from very far away places, by changing 2-3 buses and reach here by 10am in the morning and work till 4pm in the evening. They don't have specific kind of work. Right now they were making cotton buds used in 'diyas', before that it was 'Rakshabandhan' so they made rakhis.
Then I asked them about there routine in house. How do they prepare food and how do they measure things? and answer I got was that all of them can cook and measure spices by hand. But its not everyday that they cook as there are people who cook on behalf of them, such as their children, their in-laws or their neighbours. So there is always someone who cooks for them and thats acceptable by them. Even when they go for shopping, there is always someone who accompanies them and if there is no one then the shopkeeper helps them with purchasing.
So the real problem they are facing is of less employment opportunities. They get only Rs.650/- per month, which is very less if their spouse is also visually challenged. But I don't know the case of people who are blind and belong to middle or upper class and who live alone, because I have not come across them. I don't know, whether they cook or not or is there any need for us to make them familiarize about the Indian Spices.
Thus, one topic is excluded.
Then the second topic was 'Indian Spices and their Medical uses' but again the question is that is there really a need for it. For instance, if anyone gets ill, the first thing would occur to our mind is taking medicine. If you still won't feel better, you go to the doctor. So preparing homemade medicine or a ointment is considered as last option. Then how do I take a project where I am not sure of end usability?
The next topic was 'Teaching experiments to rural children with available material in their surroundings'. In this area lot of initiatives have been taken and there are books for children explaining about various scientific factors in their surrounding.
The fourth topic was 'Creating awareness about Scout and Guide teaching to children'. Again in this topic I discovered that the need was not to create awareness as it is taught in the schools but to tell children about the practical application of those techniques, rules and laws or the teachings in there day to day life.
I discussed all the topics with the Studio co-inordinate and he asked me to narrow down the area because I was not able to build connection between the practices of scout and guide with the daily activity of a child. Then I narrowed the topic by seeing children in today's context because children are alone at home. Now a days there are nuclear families and it has become a need that both parents work and children are alone at home, sometimes with a maid or servant, sometimes with their pets. So children there is a need to make them responsible and sensible about their surroundings in which they live.
Today children go alone to school in a school bus or in an auto-rikshaw and there is no one to tell them even how to cross a road. They come home and they are exposed to so many objects in home itself. Though house is considered as safest place but many incidents occur in the house which can be dangerous for a child's life.
So I came to a conclusion that it is very challenging to prepare children before hand for small incidents that occur in their life and teach them how to tackle with those situations.
