India may be having an economic boost but one in six Indian city residents lives in an urban slum with unsanitary conditions that are ‘unfit for human habitation,’ according to the first complete census of India’s vast slum population (2013). In Kolkata alone, there are over 70,000 people who are homeless and almost one-third of the total population live in slums.

Most of the slums are plagued with lack of essential civic amenities and are associated with problems of cleanliness, garbage, proper sanitation and sewerage, health care, poor electricity connections, non-availability of safe drinking water, clean toilets etc. It was felt that some upgradation in the aesthetics of the slums would uplift the environment and provide some solace to the slum people from their dirty and filthy surroundings.

Thus, under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan (Clean India Mission), the Interior Designing students of J.D. Birla Institute under the NSS banner took up an initiative to beautify the walls of the slums with painting at Tollygunge (Ward 89). The young artists painted the walls with beautiful sketches and cartoons. They involved the children of the slums and painted alphabets and numerical tables on the walls to help them learn. Children from the slum very enthusiastically took-up this assignment and the adults extended immense support as well.