Shadow Correspondent
JAMMU, APR 29:
A wall can be many things. To a home, it offers privacy and protection from the elements. To a school playground, it provides secure boundaries for children to stay within. In China, it is an attraction to bring tourists in and in America, it is a fortification to keep immigrants out. But can a wall transcend its physical properties and become something greater? Can it be a source of knowledge and ideas? And can it be a medium to create a more compassionate, healthy and sustainable planet?
This Sunday, on 29th April 2018, grassroots animal rights activists affiliated to the Vegan India Movement (VIM) attempted to answer these very questions. Armed with chalks, crayons and paints, they gathered to decorate walls in their respective cities with powerful messages on Animal Liberation.
The Vegan India Movement (VIM) incepted in January 2018 is a pan-India awareness campaign focusing on the ethics of using animals for food, clothing, products, entertainment, work, experimentation and as pets.
The movement aims to use non-violent and creative forms of animal advocacy to inspire people to recognise and respect the rights of animals and free them from human exploitation.
Wall art is an effective form of spreading social messages, but it is probably the first time that this method has been chosen to raise awareness about animals on such a large scale with activists all over India coming together to participate in the event. “Each of us, no doubt, walks past countless walls on a daily basis and while a blank wall is a boring object that most people tend to ignore, a wall with eye-catching images and messages is a great opportunity to educate thousands of people every single day” said the city coordinator for Jammu, Malvika Kalra. She added, “We are conditioned from a very early age that it is alright to exploit animals, like we do for meat, eggs and milk, but it is time to unlearn. And we are using wall art as one of the means to this end.”
The art on the walls was meticulously carried out by Bharti Sam and Kamla Thapa, ably assisted by Gourav Sharma and Shivani Dubey.
