SEHREETI, WHERE ART GIVES EXPRESSION TO ISSUES

The NGO promoties collective, collaborative practices in the area of sustainable development and habitats

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Set up by Nidhi Batra, an architect and urban designer, Sehreeti is a not-for-profit organization based in Gurugram. The organization is into encouraging and promoting collective, collaborative practices in the area of sustainable development and habitats. Art is one of the mediums that the organization uses as an effective tool in giving expression to the various issues it espouses and in sensitising communities. In an interview with the architect of Sehreeti, N. Kalyani discovers the interesting and significant role of art in the organization's work.

Please tell us about Sehreeti as an organization.

Sehreeti Developmental Practices Foundation was registered in 2017 as a not-for-profit organization. However, we started working under the name Sehreeti since 2015. Etymologically Sehreeti is made up of two words: Seh meaning collective, and Reeti meaning practices. The organisation is based on the principle of encouraging collective collaborative practices, where the community and all stakeholders and professionals work together for sustainable habitats. Based on the ideology of participatory planning, at Sehreeti we believe that engaging the community is central to any development work, conservation and restoration work. It is important that development is not only seen through the narrow lens of a planner or an architect. Rather, any kind of development is always a confluence of multiple professionals and stakeholders including environmentalists, historians, artists and sociologists. The government and other decision makers are also important stakeholders being responsible for development in urban and rural areas.