Camlin plans to organise an art camp in Varanasi to help Clean Ganga project

AHMEDABAD: Stationery company Kokuyo Camlin plans to assist in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Clean Ganga mission by organising an art camp in his Lok Sabha constituency at the ghats of Varanasi. Nearly 100 artists will come together at a dawnto-dusk art camp on the theme ‘Ganga’, being organised at the ghats in Rajghat Besant School in the holy city on September 27, said Saumitra Prasad, chief marketing officer of Kokuyo Camlin.

The company is inviting artists to register online for the camp that will be streamed live on social media. “Unless you involve the masses, transformation will not happen,” said Prasad. The paintings generated from the camp will eventually be donated for fundraising for the Clean Ganga project, he said.

Earlier, in 2014, Kokuyo Camlin got a group of artists in Kolkata to paint graffiti on trams. Ever since it sold a majority stake to Japanese stationery firm Kokuyo Group in 2011, the company dating back to the pre-Independence era has been betting big on innovations. Since 1931, Camlin has been ubiquitous in India for its school supplies from inks and sketch pens to geometry box sets.

For now, it is encouraging toddlers to take to walls of their homes as their first canvas. There should not be any dearth of creativity and expression just because parents get anxious at the sight of crayon smeared walls, said Prasad as his team rolls out washable crayons in the Indian market.