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Apr 1, 2014-2014

India

Graffiti on Garbage

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ACTIVISTS/ACT.GROUPS/DESCRIPTION OF THE GROUP

Deku

TARGET

New Delhi city government

WIDELY HELD BELIEF

That neighbourhoods, particularly high-income ones like South Delhi, should maintain a certain sanitation standard for its inhabitants.

CASE NARRATIVE

Issue and Opponent: Densely populated Delhi, India, has a considerable sanitation challenge. This is particularly noticeable in South Delhi, where despite having a more affluent population, sanitation is not handled.
Dilemma Action: A Delhi-based graffiti artist named Deku began spray painting on the overflowing garbage cans around the neighborhood of South Delhi, one of the higher-income locations in the city. This was to bring attention to the fact that civil bodies have done little to clean the city. The graffiti should force them to either begin cleaning the garbage or ignore the outlandishly spray-painted garbage cans around the neighborhood.
Outcomes: No outcome yet. The graffiti remains on the garbage cans, adding to the continuing urban decay of the neighborhood.

PRIMARY STRUGGLE/GOAL

Environment

DA TACTICS USED

Social disobedience

CASE NARRATIVE WRITER

SUCCESS METRICS

7 / 12

(EREP) Dilemma action got replicated by other movements

(MC) Media Coverage

(PUN) Punishment favored the activists

(RF) Dilemma action reduced fear and/or apathy among the activists

(SA) Dilemma action appealed to a broad segment of the public

Artivism

Laugtivism

PART OF A LARGER CAMPAIGN

0 / 3

RESOURCES

Project documentation

Dilemma Actions Coding Guidebook

Case study documentation

Dilemma_Actions_Analysis_Dataset

CC BY 4.0 Deed, Attribution 4.0 International

SOURCES

Garima. 2016. “Graffiti on Garbage,” Actipedia. Retrieved July 23, 2023. (https://actipedia.org/project/graffiti-garbage).

Kaur, Nehmat. 2012. “Cans & Roses: Guerrilla artists on Indian street,” The Economic Times, August 8. Retrieved July 23, 2023. (https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cans-roses-guerrilla-artists-on-indian-street/articleshow/15540495.cms?from=mdr).


https://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-IRTB08557. Accesed April 15, 2022.

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