Healing Delhi with humour: Medical 'clownselors' bring smiles to pediatric patients

Clownseling, a brainchild of Sheetal Agarwal, is a blend of clown and counselling, in which volunteers dress up as clowns and visit children hospitals

Singing rhymes and dancing, they walk through the wards of a children's hospital in the national capital every week, while patients, their parents and caregivers cheer and clap.

They are the 'medical clownselors', a group of volunteers who dress up as clowns, and they visit the wards of Chacha Nehru Bal Chikitsalaya in Geeta Colony in east Delhi every Saturday.

Coming from different walks of life, they make all-out efforts to spread joy in the pensive and at times intimidating environs of the hospital.

They call themselves 'medical clownselors', a blend of clown and counsellor.

They come to this pediatric hospital on Saturdays and engage with ailing kids, their loved ones and nursing staff through their humourous acts.

Clownselors is the brainchild of Sheetal Agarwal, a native of Hisar in Haryana, who started medical clowning in July 2016 in the national capital.

"My obsession with smiles led me on this journey. I met Dhara in Ahmedabad in one of the retreats where she introduced herself as a medical clown. I was intrigued, came back and searched for what is it.