15 Delhi Women With Disabilities Turn Shelter Art Into Show

Guddu sat quietly at the edge of the room for days, watching others paint and shape clay but never joining in. Then one afternoon, she picked up a brush and began decorating a vase she had made, her focus complete and unhurried.

She was one of 15 women with intellectual disabilities living in a Delhi government shelter who participated in "What Is Love?", a five-month art initiative by the Society for Child Development. Most had been abandoned by their families and spent their days in a clean, well-run facility that met their basic needs but offered little creative outlet.

Founder Madhumita Puri wanted to try something different after three decades working in disability services. Instead of fitting people into existing programs, she invited three artists to guide the women through ceramics, textiles, and painting without any fixed expectations.

"Love begins with knowing who you are, and then accepting that self," Puri explains. The project name reflected her belief that identity and self-acceptance form the foundation of everything else.

Artists Suparna Arora, Shalini Dutt, and Sujata Das brought clay, fabric, and paint into the shelter and let the women explore at their own pace. There were no instructions about what to make or how to do it correctly.

"I was nervous at first because I hadn't worked with a project like this," admits Dutt, who teaches textiles. "But they were so open, so loving, just happy that people had come."

The women's creations emerged slowly. Some stayed silent while working, completely absorbed in shaping clay or choosing colors. Others chatted and laughed, their personalities coming through in bold patterns and unexpected designs.

Why This Inspires

Many of these women are seen primarily as people who need care, their inner lives overlooked. "There are thoughts, feelings, opinions, all buried under distress," Puri says.

The art gave them something rare: ownership over their own expression. The vases, paintings, and textiles they created were entirely theirs, made without correction or judgment.

After five months, their work was exhibited at a Delhi gallery, transforming from shelter projects into public art that people came to see and appreciate.

For Guddu, the journey from watching silently to creating confidently showed what happens when people are given space and materials without pressure. The women discovered not just how to make art, but how to trust their own ideas and see themselves as creators rather than charity cases.