MUMBAI, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- A group of volunteers in India's Mumbai are giving a makeover to the city's slums by painting them with bright colors.
While Mumbai is famous for its huge skyscrapers and booming industries, it is also home to one of the largest slums in the world. Many of the urban slums are situated in or near the heart of the city.
Determined to lift the image of the slums, artists from Chal Rang De, a non-profit organization, have turned walls and roofs of the slum homes into their palette of colors. They believed it would give self-confidence to the slum dwellers, and change people's perception of the less privileged groups of the society.
"There were 12 of us who wanted to do this but eventually over the period of time we got about 2,000 people who registered with us in the span of five days to come and make this whole dream into a reality," Dedeepya Reddy, co-founder of Chal Rang De, told Xinhua in a recent interview.
"The chief minister's office reached out to us and they really want to support this initiative in whatever ways that they can help us... With every project that we do, call it creativity curse, we try to do something different," said Reddy.
After giving a fresh look to the Asalpha slum in Mumbai's Ghatkopar suburb, the group is now working to transform the Khar Danda village.
Artists from Nepal and other countries were also invited to create murals that depict the lives of slum dwellers.
Chal Rang De's goal is not only changing the outlook of the slums, but also offering sustainable living solutions to the residents.
Residents were supplied with sustainable roofing that is durable and decreases indoor temperature, and is more efficient than the temporary sheet roofing used duration the monsoon season.
