Name of Fellow: Umesh Joshi
Genre: Art and Culture
Area of Work: Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh

Umesh Joshi is a teacher and a theatre artist working with children to impart Constitutional values among them through theatre.

He hails from Sahibabad in Ghaziabad district and completed his secondary schooling from Saraswati Vidyamandir. Later on, when he joined college in Delhi, he understood the agenda of the school when joined theatre. During his college time, he came in contact with a theatre group which was supported by Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust (SAHMAT).

His days with the theatre group made him understand the political ideologies existing in the society and he started performing issue-based dramas. In the process he would read about issues and challenge his learning from his school. It was at the theatre group where he was introduced to the ideas of social coherence and concepts of equality, fraternity, freedom and justice.

Reading about Gandhian philosophy, works of Safdar Hashmi, and others, he developed his leaning towards social causes. In their works he saw that they were struggling against the disturbances brought in the society by rightwing organisations.

Then he would perform on issues such citizenship—why it should not be based on religion, they performed on Kisan Andolan (farmers’ movement), violation rights etc.

While working in theatres, he identified that values such as equality, fraternity, freedom, and justice should be searched within oneself. Believes that these values should start from an individual’s life and practices. People should bring in practice these values within their social relations and interactions. He also opines that the values are just based on human life, they are equally important for the environment.

Umesh believes that it is easier to inculcate value system among children, which happened with him during his school time because at early age, students are not sensitized about social coherence and students are also not well read about people and various ideologies. So, he thought of finding a method to connect with students from various schools.

As a theatre artist, he already knew the skills required and he started to think about bringing up secular themes among children through theatre. In the process of theatre, children would learn about the issues and in the execution of dramas their parents would also see the problems existing in the society.

Though initially he faced difficulties to engage with children from various schools, he has been successful in convincing a local school admin to take free theatre classes from grade 3rd to 9th. He took some online classes and offline as well. He ensured distribution of preamble among the students during his interaction with the children.

He intends to sensitise students about Constitutional values among children through theatre. He is developing tools that will include tales and scripts reflecting need and importance of constitutional values in day-to-day life.