New Delhi | Gurugram, India
KD Lang once said “Art knows no prejudice, art knows no boundaries”. Aiming to exemplify this, the young duo of Tarini Malhotra and Avni Singh, students of The Shri Ram School (Moulsari Campus, Gurgaon) and Co-founders of Project Nishant conceptualised a virtual art exhibition focused on demonstrating the creativity and artistic acumen of neurodiverse young painters, from the age group of 8 to 21.
Project Nishant is a young start-up striving towards harnessing the talent and diversity that neurodiverse individuals bring and helping them get recognition, respect, gainful employment, and self-sustaining opportunities by linking them with NGOs associated with livelihood skilling. In the process, creating a pool of talented prospects for corporates to choose from. The platform also ensures a streamlined process of recruitment and helps these individuals throughout their journey.
The exhibition will be live from 19th December 2021 to 2nd January 2022 and will feature over 50 paintings that have been made by young neurodiverse artists, with some being as young as 8 years. The paintings are available for sale and can be viewed in the following link projectnishant.in/Gallery.html . The exhibition is being carried out with a vision to not only bring forth the hidden talent of these artists but also to raise awareness about the prejudice that exists in our society around neurodiversity.
Tarini and Avni have an elaborate history of proactively participating in various social causes such as financial inclusion of women, education of the underprivileged and supporting kids with disabilities. Both Co-founders of Project Nishant are firm believers in the fact that the betterment of society can only be achieved by working at the grassroots level.
Sharing her thoughts on the exhibition & the overall scenario of the Neurodiverse people in India, Tarini Malhotra, Co-founder, Project Nishant, said, “When we started Project Nishant six months ago, we realized that the world of neurodiversity is rich, creative and profound. So, we felt the compelling need to build a platform to showcase their breath-taking potential and this led us to orchestrate this virtual art exhibition. With this exhibition we hope to showcase the talent and imagination of our brilliant artists and propel them towards self-reliance and growth. We also hope to raise awareness about our project so that our community can grow further & help others.”
Avni Singh, Co-founder, Project Nishant, added, “Tarini and I have been friends with neurodiverse people all our lives and we’ve seen first-hand the talent and the skill that many of them possess, which is why we’ve been really affected by the discrimination that they face in the workplace. We wish to fix this disparity and help neurodiverse people by getting them access to various job opportunities. Today, six months later, we’ve partnered with 5 prestigious NGOs and 11 organizations which will help us achieve significant milestones in this endeavour of ours.”
Just like us, neurodiverse people also have an equal right to education and employment to lead self-sufficient lives. In today’s world, it has become essential for corporates to go beyond the traditional HR Policies and start working on policy frameworks that would help them to effectively integrate and leverage the skills of neurodiverse people. This will not only help them to work for the betterment of society but also to have a competitive edge with an alternate approach for attracting highly competent and productive talent.
For any further details about the various initiatives that have been undertaken by project Nishant, volunteering, and collaboration, one can visit the online site of Project Nishant viz. projectnishant.in.
About Project Nishant
Project Nishant is an initiative to bring about an impact in the development of the neurodiverse members of the society in the country. It is founded by young minds Tarini Malhotra and Avni Singh, senior secondary students and aims to focus on the grassroots issues prevailing in India.
