Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya (National ... - IGRMS

Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya 291
and constructivist approach to gender studies. It challenges the stereotypical image
of woman as confined to home and hearth by emphasizing the role of women in
various subsistence activities. It celebrates the triumph of creativity of the subaltern
woman amidst the dreary drudgery of daily life. The display of kitchen with
utensils of different communities implies multiple cultural heritage as well as
hybridity.
Umang: Special programme for vulnerable groups is organized annually in order to
enable differently abled persons and children to visit indoor museum galleries.
Since 2006, the World Disabled Day (December 3) is celebrated in collaboration
with the Department of Social Justice Government of Madhya Pradesh. On that
day, an awareness rally is organised in the City of Bhopal for the cause of differently
abled people. Special arrangements are made for the differently abled children to
visit IGRMS exhibition galleries on that day and present their special items cultural
programme. Some children who brought laurels for India in the Special Olympic
in China were felicitated, in 2007. Provisions for ramps and wheel chair have
been re-created. Labeling on Braille has been done for the benefit of blind visitors,
to understand the cultural dimensions of displays in the galleries.
Parvarish: an innovative project was started for slum children with the initiative
of an NGO ‘Oasis’ whose objective was to introduce museum as a school of
learning in a non-formal manner. The students were taught in a non-formal manner
in the IGRMS open air exhibition for two days a week. Other museums also
participated in it including Regional Museum of Natural History and Regional
Science Centre.
These activities received commendable response, and acknowledged at various
fora that the IGRMS has already broken certain barriers of the conventional
museum functioning, and that it has laid a new track for a new museum movement.
Conclusion
To conclude, the typical features of IGRMS are highlighted as follows. While
museums generally are set up to house an already available collection, for IGRMS
the concept came first and collection followed. The Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav
Sangrahalaya has lived a vigorous life of more than three decades, transcended
some barriers of museum in a conventional sense, and laid new tracks by working
in collaboration with folk and tribal communities all over the country for
preservation of their bio-cultural identities and their self respect. It has established
bridges among different regions and communities in the country, and tried to
achieve the goal of national integration by establishing contacts with the youth,
women and disadvantaged groups. Within its modest resources, the IGRMS has
tried to affirm the fact that the Indian communities, which have lived in harmony
for thousands of years, may have the answer for human survival in an age when
there is apprehension of bio-cultural extinction. By emphasizing traditional
knowledge system IGRMS does not like to romanticize it as a changeless essentialist