Indian Puppeteer Teaches Poor Children Music - by Frances Garnett

For the past 15 years, Prakash Bhatt, a puppeteer, has been teaching children from the Kathputi Nagar slum in Jaipur, India, to play various musical instruments for free. He himself was born into a family of puppeteers, like the other slum children, but puppeteering is now a dying art, so he teaches them skills they can use to help make a decent living through being in orchestras or working at parties. Puppeteering used to be allowed on streets and footpaths, and was used in election and awareness campaigns, but now there isn't any use for that because TVs are around, and also police no longer allow it. Internationally, however, puppeteering is still greatly loved and appreciated, and Bhatt has travelled to many places, like the USA, Russia, South Korea, the Netherlands, Columbia, and many more to perform. His "school" unfortunately has a limited amount of instruments, and also needs more space, since he can't teach where he is if it rains too much, and yet he has no money to pay for it.

I think the author who wrote this wanted to bring awareness to the good deed this man is doing, but also to bring awareness and make us think about economic and cultural issues attached to this environment. Firstly, a traditional art is dying. It has happened many times in every culture, but that's why many places try to teach children about traditional arts and such to keep it alive, and though I wish that could happen to these children, it's not economically possible. Not only is an art dying, but a way of life. Most of these children's families were made up of puppeteers who now have no livelihood, therefore no money, which deprives the younger generation of opportunities to get out of poverty. Another issue is cultural: these children are part of a lower caste (social class), so the local government school won't admit them, and the only education they can get is from a help center run by Christian missionaries. I disagree with this, but I was raised in a very different culture. Still, it's hard not to want to change the ways of another society, especially since this particular belief keeps people in a cycle of poverty. This article actually presents a bigger picture, one of a current problem in all of India, of a perpetual cycle of poverty that is almost impossible to escape, since most children don't have opportunities like the one offered by Prakash Bhatt.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/globetrotting-puppeteer-teaches-music-free/article5743901.ece?homepage=true