Category: Women in Action

Sex is by choice, menstruation a must. Why then should condoms be cheap and sanitary towels expensive? OYEBOLA OWOLABI writes that activists are championing causes to ensure that girls get affordable Protective Appropriate Dressing (PAD) every month

 

Most girls stay away from school and social activities during their monthly flow due to reasons beyond their control. A 2018 UNICEF report notes that “lack of access to functional and segregated toilets, limited information on menstrual hygiene management and limited availability of sanitary materials to manage menstruation make it more difficult for girls to manage their periods.

“Sanitary pads are expensive and often inaccessible. Some girls resort to managing their periods with pieces of rags or paper which are often unhygienic and uncomfortable. Others ask for permission to leave school premises and many stay at home during their periods.”

In 2017, Austina Okpo started the Gift-a-Pad Campaign in Nigeria to help young and poor girls. “I used the crowd-sourcing knowledge I had acquired from The Advanced Digital Changemaking Course I attended on WorldPulse and was able to generate funds enough to place a month supply of sanitary pads in the hands of 192 girls at a public high school in my community. But this is just a drop in the ocean, considering the number of girls who are yet to be reached,” she said.

Okpo uses her Gift-A-Pad Campaign to say every girl deserves Protective Appropriate Dressing (P.A.D) every month. She reiterates that while sex is a choice, menstruation is not, and if condoms are free, pads should be free too! She also wants the Nigerian government, and other third world countries, to pass laws that pads should be free for all girls of secondary school age.

Amaka Onyema, a lawyer, is also in the business of demystifying menstruation and ensuring that girls get affordable pads when the time comes. Through her ‘Embracing the Girl-Child’ non-profit, Onyema is paying forward the kindness she received as a secondary school girl by distributing pads to secondary school girls and educating them on proper menstrual hygiene.

Onyema said: “Menstruation is a natural process. However, in most parts of the world, it remains a taboo and is rarely talked about. Almost always, there are social, cultural and religious norms or unwritten rules and practices about managing menstruation and interacting with menstruating women.

“Sanitary towels should be put at very low cost, so low as to allow both the rich and the poor afford it. Girls in school should be able to focus on learning and not be distracted by the inability to afford period protection.”

 

Period poverty

Period poverty is described as the inability of women and girls’ to access affordable, safe and hygienic sanitary products. They are unable to manage their periods with dignity, sometimes due to community stigma and sanction. It also affects women and girls who have limited access to these products, leading to prolonged use of the same tampons or pads, which can cause infection.

Due to this poverty period, girls miss one or more days of school. In Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, girls will miss as much as 20 per cent of their school year while some may drop out altogether. The loss of education means girls are more likely to be forced into child marriage. Their health is also at risk because they are forced to use dirty rags which can cause infection.

Ending period poverty

Campaigners and activists have argued that having a period is not a choice and, therefore, menstrual products should not be considered luxury items with high taxes imposed on them.

ActionAid trains women and girls to make  safe, reusable sanitary pads so they always have access to clean and affordable sanitary products. It also provides information about periods, sex and pregnancy in its girls’ clubs so girls are better informed about their bodies.

Germany last year stopped taxing menstrual products as luxuries, marking them instead as necessities. In January, the Value Added Tax (VAT) on these products was reduced from 17 per cent to nine per cent.

In 2019, only 10 of 50 states in the United States considered menstrual products as necessities and exempted them from sales tax. In October, the number went up to 17. The European Union allows for a reduction of the VAT on menstrual products to a minimum of five per cent.

Some other countries have completely removed any sales taxes on menstrual products, such as Kenya, which did it as far back as 2004, as well as Australia, Canada and India. But in Hungary, VAT on menstrual products is as high as 27 per cent.

 

Reusable pads to the rescue

Depending on the flow and number of days, every lady uses at least a pack or two of pads during her time of the month. While some pads are packed in sevens, some are eight, others 10. Also depending on the brand, pads cost between N300 and N1,000 on the average. The implication of this is that on the average, ladies spend about N1,500 or more monthly on pads.

To help girls feel more comfortable and manage their periods better, and to cushion the effect of expensive disposable pads, many non-profits are seeking out cheap and hygienic alternatives which are readily available to the poor.

In 2018, UNICEF, with funding from Canada, trained 40 girls from four different high schools in Osun State. The week-long training included sessions on how to use sewing machines and locally sourced fabric to make hygienic sanitary materials. The girls were also trained on using and maintaining the re-usable pads. Eighty female students in Anambra and Katsina States were also trained in the production of re-usable sanitary pads.

The pads are made of cotton, they are washable and reusable. Girls can use each pad for over 12 months. A set of about five pads cost about N450, a significantly cheaper price to the disposable ones. Materials for the pads are locally-sourced and girls find it easier to manage their periods during school hours and at home too.

“Meeting the hygiene needs of all adolescent girls is a fundamental issue of human rights, dignity, and public health. This training is just the beginning. Together with partners, UNICEF Nigeria aims to reach over 1,000 girls with these types of interventions,” said Job Ominyi, WASH Specialist at UNICEF Nigeria.2018.

ActionAid trains women and girls to make safe, reusable sanitary pads so they always have access to clean and affordable sanitary products. It also provides information about periods, sex and pregnancy so girls are better informed about their bodies.

Nancy Muller, a Senior Program Officer at PATH, said one of the biggest challenges in maintaining menstrual hygiene is the cost of disposable pads and improper sanitation or waste disposal system.

“At PATH, we’re exploring potential solutions that are appropriate and affordable. For example, we’ve been looking at ways to make a hybrid reusable pad less expensive, easier to wash, and quicker to dry. Maybe we could even package those with a booklet so girls could learn what’s happening when they start to menstruate.

“And another option that I’m excited about is the menstrual cup. These cups catch blood and can last for a decade. And they can be used for 10 to 12 hours at a stretch – a full school day. That could mean so much added potential for keeping girls in school,” she said. PATH is a global team of innovators working to accelerate health equity so all people and communities can thrive.

The Pad Project is working with local partners and non-profits to install machines that are easy to operate use locally-sourced natural resources to function, and require minimal electricity. Each machine employs six women and one supervisor, enabling them to produce pads for their communities for approximately $.05 each. Workers can decide how and where to sell their pads to create more economic opportunities. It also created educational toolkits for middle school, high school, college and beyond which provide a structure to explore menstrual health and issues women and girls face all over the world with respect to menstrual hygiene.

 

Some countries give pads free

Scotland, in 2019, committed another 4 million pounds to tackle period poverty. Free sanitary products are now available in more public places such as libraries and leisure centres after they were offered in schools, colleges and universities in August 2018. The move stems from a pilot project announced by the Scottish government in July 2017 that gave women and girls in low income households in Aberdeen free tampons and towels.

In Africa, Kenya and South Africa championed the cause. Botswana joined the league in 2017 when it passed a legislation to provide sanitary products to schoolgirls in both state and private schools. “Government provision of sanitary pads to all schools would improve access to education in a country where many could not afford sanitary products like pads,” said Member of Parliament Polson Majaga who tabled the motion.

Zambia also unveiled a program to provide free sanitary pads for girls in rural and peri-urban areas. In its 2017 budget, the programme provided for 14,000 girls from vulnerable households in different districts. “In our country, like in many parts of Africa, reproductive health matters are treated as a taboo and with silence. This limits girls’ access to education as some fail to go to school due to lack of proper sanitary towels. In order to increase and retain attendance of girls in schools, the government will begin distributing free sanitary towels to girls in rural and peri-urban areas,” said then Finance Minister Felix Mutati.

Periods shouldn’t come with sacrifices. The ability to manage menstruation is not a luxury – it’s essential to enjoying the rights to health, water and sanitation, education, work, and non-discrimination.

On behalf of the UN Women French National Committee – Founding Member Fanny Benedetti and Vice President Céline Mas
French President Emmanuel Macron again sounded the alarm at the 23rd Conference of the Parties (COP23) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

At the summit, which took place from 6 to 17 November 2017 in Bonn, he warned that the planet is under threat and that if we continue on our current trajectory, we risk “tacitly, collectively accepting the disappearance of a significant number of populations by 2100.”

Furthermore, a group of over 15,000 scientists from more than 184 countries have issued a notice highlighting our moral imperative to current and future generations to take action to reverse the vicious cycles that have been created by the overexploitation of the planet’s natural resources and through our unsustainable modes of production and consumption, which represent a risk for the future of all of humanity.

As the primary users of new agricultural techniques, as green energy entrepreneurs, or simply as those who decide on modes of consumption and behaviour within the family, women are key actors in bringing about change and developing solutions that secure our transition to a sustainable future.

While climate negotiations are failing to give us news that’s sufficiently heartening, the increasing attention given to the specific role of women in the fight against climate disruption and the ecological transition is a reason to feel encouraged.

Again this year, at the COP23 in Bonn, the role of women took the spotlight thanks to the activism of the feminist associations present, such as Care France, Adéquations and Women in Europe for a Common Future, which alongside UN Women have tirelessly brought the subject to attention, at every stage in the negotiation process.

These advocacy efforts are starting to pay off, as the states have just adopted a gender-focused action plan, a first within the framework of these negotiations. The plan obliges states to make commitments that go beyond making observations on the differentiated impact that climate change has on men and women, by ensuring that all of their climate mitigation efforts are designed to decrease this gender gap, whereby women are disproportionately affected.

In fact, each change to the climate affects women in a specific way, especially in the Global South, because female populations in these countries provide an essential contribution to food security, agriculture, health and energy sectors. Every consequence of climate change which impacts on natural resources—such as drought, flooding and other extreme meteorological events—will exacerbate the poverty of these women who generally carry out household tasks unaided.

The risk of death as a result of natural disasters linked to climate change is 14 times higher for women and children, essentially because they are not the primary beneficiaries of catastrophe alert and prevention programmes.

If women have often been considered as secondary actors, it’s time for a thorough review, appreciation and endorsement of their vital role. This inevitably means reassessing the way that financing is attributed.

Studies show that taking gender into account in policies focused on development, transport, sustainable forest management, water management and renewable energy strengthens their impact and increases their socio-economic return on investment. Taking action in favour of women and for equality therefore means contributing to the fight against climate change.

UN Women notably supports women’s action on climate change through its International Day of Rural Women on 15 October, and its flagship programme which promotes women’s empowerment through climate-smart agriculture. This programme aims to improve African women’s access to technology and information by managing digital platforms for women and providing agricultural data in real time such as information on farming technology, market prices and weather forecasts, as well as increasing women’s access to financing, credit and investment.

In France, women are already at the forefront of activities in the social and solidarity economy sector, in agribusiness, health, social integration and recycling.

However, the means allocated to gender concerns in the climate sphere remain largely insufficient. In 2015, only 0.01 percent of international funding was being used to support projects that incorporate both climate and women’s rights elements. This lack of access to funding is a serious impediment to the development of projects led by women that accelerate the ecological transition.

The question of financing is undeniably one that states must address – by making real commitments – in order to create climate resilience, and to prevent humanity from suffering the worst consequences of its own imprudence.

By Mary Robinson, President of the Mary Robinson Foundation—Climate Justice.

The world faces many major challenges, from climate change to armed conflict, massive displacement of people, the rise of the far-right and violence within our societies. These require urgent attention and action but none of these pressing issues can be adequately addressed without first facing up to the issue of gender inequality. No society can develop—economically, politically or socially—when half of its population is marginalised.

In the face of such worries, women and men must share responsibility for determining their futures and be enabled to realise equal roles in building peaceful communities that are resilient in the face of climate change. Women are not equally represented at decision making tables, their voices are not heard and they do not have equal participation in creating policy, despite evidence that involving women in decision making and governance leads to more open and inclusive policies.

There sadly exists a belief that women do not deserve equal treatment and failure to address it is one of the major barriers to progress and prosperity. If women are not equally represented and issues affecting them are not adequately addressed, it has impacts for wider society.

But empowering women, both politically and economically, leads to poverty eradication and wider economic growth. According to a report by McKinsey, advancing women’s equality could add US $12 trillion to the global economy by 2025.

Women are massively impacted by some of the world’s most pressing ills. Gender-based violence remains a major human rights issue globally, particularly in areas of conflict. Cultural values and societal norms play into how this issue is dealt with and all too often societies turn a blind eye, with families and societies falling apart.

But women are not just victims in conflict, they are powerful agents for change. They have important roles to play in conflict resolution and peacebuilding and their contribution can bring about change in societies, communities and homes. In 2000, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1325 which outlines the important role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts, and the importance of equal participation in the maintenance and promotion of peace and security.

All too often governance and decision making is not gender responsive. Consequently, policy implemented does not reflect the needs of all citizens. Targeted approaches are required to ensure all women have a voice in the formulation of decisions that impact their lives. This would allow for women’s voices to be heard and for policy to not only ensure their needs are met, but also that they have an active role in building better and healthier societies.

For women’s voices to be heard, their participation is vital. It is crucial to hear from those feeling the impacts of global challenges such as gender-based violence and those on the front-lines of the impacts of climate change. An important element of this is to strengthen women’s leadership roles in order to facilitate more gender responsive action and policy. These major challenges cannot be addressed adequately without addressing inequalities in leadership and governance.

All over the world there are inspiring examples of women who are taking action and bringing positive change to their communities and societies and breaking down the barriers of gender inequality. On a visit to Ethiopia several years ago I met with a group of remarkable women leaders who were striving to build peace in Sudan and South Sudan. Traditionally women had been sidelined but these women wanted to be at the negotiating table and were striving to bring justice to victims of sexual violence in conflict zones and to mentor the next generation of African leaders.

This too can be seen in the area of climate change. The Mary Robinson Foundation—Climate Justice amplifies the voices of those most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Women on the ground are the ones who are feeling the impacts but they also play an important role in ensuring that climate action is effective. We work to ensure the participation of women, especially those at the grassroots level in international fora. To realise the “leave no-one behind” approach called for in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the commitment “to reach the furthest behind first”, grassroots women must be recognised as key actors in global sustainable development.

A world underpinned by gender equality will be a better world. All women must be empowered to realise their full and equal rights as this will contribute to society as a whole. Amplifying women’s voices and increasing their leadership and influence is essential to achieving democracy, good governance, environmental sustainability and peace.

Women are the keys to ensuring effective solutions to some of the greatest challenges facing the world today and need representation in all decision making processes. The future of our planet and the peacefulness of our communities depend on it. After all, women’s rights are human rights.

By Cécile Denayrouse for Tribune de Genève
Since the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse allegations, classes that teach women how to prepare themselves for a threatening situation have been filling up. What’s the appeal?
An underground car park. Beneath the stark white lights, a woman. Alone, teetering on high heels, vulnerable, she’s rummaging through her handbag looking for her car keys. Suddenly, the sound of footsteps behind her…
A scenario that gives you goose bumps? Yet it’s one that’s rife with clichés. Hollywood may have given us countless scenes like this, but the reality is very different. “We are saturated with anxiety-inducing images,” Carole, a Fem Do Chi self-defence teacher based in Geneva said. “Yet 70 percent of sexual assaults are carried out in the daytime, and by a person known to the victim. The witness stories that have burst forth on the internet since the Harvey Weinstein scandal corroborate this finding. During our courses, which we offer in partnership with the association Viol Secours (‘Rape Aid’), we work on unravelling the clichés, and on teaching participants how to set limits. We explain to women and teenage girls that they are also entitled to imagine positive scenarios, in which they yell, hit, defend themselves. Take action, basically.”
At the various self-defence courses offered across the Swiss canton, women are learning about weak spots to target, strangulation and blows to an attacker’s private parts, but they are also discovering self-awareness. “It’s not only about learning how and where to strike. Self-defence is at once verbal, emotional and physical”, Carole added. “The majority of assaults are perpetrated by people who feel entitled to test the limits of their victim. It can be the ‘good family man’, the friend of friends, the work colleague… Notwithstanding some exceptions, these people aren’t psychopaths: if the rules are clearly laid down, they take note and the worst is avoided.”
Not being afraid to inflict pain
According to the specialists, women have a lot to learn when it comes to being aggressive. But the deluge of #Metoo that has flooded social networks has acted as a wake-up call. Raphaël Guichon, manager of the Association Formation Self Défense (Self-Defence Training Association) and self-defence instructor at Ladyfense, has seen an increase in demand for private classes in recent months. “There is a kind of collective stirring of consciousness around rape culture”, he explained. “But there remains a lot to be done in terms of prevention, by working with young girls and boys. Self-defence should be a public health question.”
Serge Pralong, self-defence instructor and founder of the Centre d’autodéfense de Genève (Geneva Self-Defence Centre) has been offering courses in partnership with the University of Geneva for the last few years. “With the start of each new term, the list of participants gets longer. There’s a similar pattern in the way things unfold during our courses. At the start, our students panic, and can’t manage to get out of a hold position. After a few months, it takes them ten seconds. Sometimes we see incredible things. I teach my students how to delve their hand into their bag, take out any object and use it as means to defend themselves. To be effective, self-defence must be put into context.”
“You think you’re beautiful?”
45-year-old Aurélie* was carrying the weight of a troubled past, having been a victim of violence. She decided to break the vicious cycle, by signing up to a Fem Do Chi course. It has made her feel stronger: “The course has been a revelation. My body language in the street is changing, I’m going to walk with my head held high from now on. I know that I have the right to say ‘no’ at any moment, including with a partner. I’ve got my self-confidence back.”
Carole is unsurprised by Aurélie’s transformation: “Women are above all prisoners of their socialisation. We tell little boys to defend themselves if someone bullies them, but we tell little girls to report it to the teacher.” As a result, many victims recount having felt paralysed and unable to act, simply because they had never been shown how to strike a blow, or even because they were afraid of hurting the other or of getting hurt themselves.
Another misconception that’s hard to change: the idea that if we go along with it, it will be “less awful”. Combined with a fear of being hit, it can make a powerful deterrent to taking action. “On the contrary, the quicker we react, the more our assailant feels less certain that he can do whatever he wants,” Serge Pralong explained. “An attacker has a scenario in mind, it’s vital to break the scenario.”
All the more so since attackers always use the same kind of techniques to dominate their victims. Both physical and psychological. The same phrases come up time after time: ‘Seriously, think you’re that beautiful? You really thought I wanted to rape you? Thought I was interested in you? You don’t get it, do you?’ Their intention: shake up the victim and make her have doubts. Except that, when we know what their game is, it doesn’t work anymore…
Note:* Real name withheld.

By Idrissa Sane for Le Soleil

The smell of charcoal and fried fish lingers in the air as a group of girls make their way through the crowded streets of northern Dakar. Donned in blue and white football kits, they attract unwanted attention upon arriving to an open space barely big enough to be a football pitch. “You should be inside cleaning, not playing football,” shout a group of boys. One of the girls, shrugging off such opinion, scatters crushed charcoal to outline the goalposts and launches a football into the air.

Sadly the jeers and attitudes of these young men are common in Senegal. Across the country traditional gender roles are ingrained in national psyche and enforced from a very young age. Despite Article 31 of the UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child stating that all children have the right to play, Senegalese daughters are expected to carry out most household tasks, leaving little time for leisure activities. Seyni Ndir Seck is well acquainted with such a childhood. President of Ladies’ Turn—a nonprofit working to promote female football across the country—Ndir Seck grew up hiding her football practice from her parents. “It’s never been easy for women of our generation to play football in Senegal or elsewhere,” said the 38-year-old and former captain of Senegal’s national women’s football team.

Ladies’ Turn is out to level the playing field for aspiring girl footballers. Launched in 2009, the project is the fruit of a friendship between three women; Ndir Seck, American Jennifer Browning and Senegal-based Cameroonian sports journalist Gaelle Yomi. The trio, often referred to as the ‘Triangle of Fire’, met when Browning—working for the UNDP—received an initial grant to fund a football project. During the period of Navétanes (a holiday football season meaning winter championship in Wolof), Browning was surprised to see no women out playing, especially as in her native US football is primarily a women’s sport. Shocked by this practice, Browning and her two colleagues “organised a tournament which proved a success, this is how we came to set up an association which would run this tournament seasonally,” explained Ndir Seck. This first tournament in 2009 saw over 400 teenage girls participate. Now Ladies’ Turn works in 11 regions of the country and teams meet up to fives times a week during the training season. In 2017 more than 200 girls took part in regular training sessions across the country, and 100 girls have already registered for the upcoming tournament in January 2018.

 

Football has a real impact on girls’ lives both on and off the pitch. The organisation recognises that women’s football is a powerful tool for promoting gender equality, both by empowering the girls who play and by presenting women in new roles as athletes. Girls learn the importance of teamwork and build their self-confidence and leadership skills. Some of the girls have even gone onto become Ladies’ Turn trainers themselves. Practice takes place in public places, enabling girls to showcase their talents, form an identity outside of the home and openly abolish any misconceptions about girls in sport. “We are women. We want to have the same status as men,” said a girl from the team representing Koumbal – a region in Senegal.

Off the pitch Ladies’ Turn has yet to achieve a clean sheet; still facing opposition and financial worry. Bassouré Diaby, Head Coach of the Senegalese National Women’s Team and site coordinator for Ladies’ Turn in Saint Louis (Senegal’s second city), was overwhelmed by the local community’s level of unhappiness, “Not everyone agrees with what we are doing, but I still wasn’t expecting this much resistance,” he said. Regarding the financial side of things, Ladies’ Turn has been fortunate to obtain partnerships with the British Council and Canadian Embassy in Senegal, but for the time being this is not sufficient as the eight staff work on a volunteer basis.

Keeping their eyes on the goal, the female trio have big plans for the future. With Ndir Seck having recently been elected as President of the Women’s Football Commission at the Senegalese Federation for Football the hope is that, in addition to continuing her work with Ladies’ Turn, she will be able to push for changes in how official women’s football is organised across the country. One big goal is to use football as a way to support girls’ through their secondary education, to help fund this desire the team are looking to create overseas partnerships.

For the time being, Ndir Seck remains optimistic that both Ladies’ Turn and it’s girls will go from strength to strength.

http://www.ladiesturn.org/LadiesTurn_English/Welcome.html

Indian cinema is depicting women in fresh new ways, reflecting a changing society.

 

By Namrata Joshi for The Hindu

Simran (2017), a woman-centric film made in India’s mainstream Hindi language, stars Kangana Ranaut, one of the country’s leading actresses. Her performance as Praful Patel garnered critical praise, but the film still flopped at the box office.

It seems the free-spirited, amoral central character was to blame—the audience simply couldn’t relate to a woman who keeps getting into trouble and shows no remorse. Yet in spite of its inane and inconsistent script and character development, it was heartening that a character like Praful Patel (aka Simran) could even be conceived and brought to the screen in popular Hindi cinema.

A few years ago, it would have been hard to imagine such a heroine in a Bollywood film: Simran is transgressive, ambitious, greedy, tempestuous, manipulative, deeply flawed, refreshingly unapologetic and owns up to her addictions, failings and choices on men and drinks—be they good or bad.

She brings to mind the rebellious architecture student Radha in In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones (1989). Played by author-activist Arundhati Roy, who also wrote the screenplay, Radha lives for herself and is accountable only to herself. She, like Simran, is not a role model as are most heroines in Indian cinema. But Radha was created for alternative, experimental cinema; Simran was intended for conventional Bollywood. The film’s attempt to mainstream a rarely seen female disruptiveness is a welcome departure.

During the past few years, Hindi cinema has seen not only the emergence of women-centric films but also an increasing diversity and nuance in portrayals of women, especially compared with male characters. So should we rejoice that these developments are sending a positive message to society and changing our age-old mind sets about women? Not quite.

Popular cinema can never influence or alter society’s attitude towards issues, including gender. The “no means no” dialogue in the 2016 Indian courtroom drama Pink stresses consent in all matters sexual, yet it hardly found an echo in the recent real-life case involving writer and director Mahmood Farooqui. The accusation involved the rape of a US researcher. The accused was acquitted, with the judge pronouncing that “no” from a woman may not always mean a denial of consent—a “feeble no” could, in fact, mean “yes.”

What Indian cinema can do effectively is to reflect society and changing more. The current lot of women’s films may be a drop in the male-dominated Bollywood ocean, but their profusion dates back to the 2012 Nirbhaya rape case [in which a 23-year-old physiotherapy intern died in a gang rape in the capital city of Delhi] and the discourse it sparked. Violence against women captured the nation’s attention and made its way into filmmakers’ imaginations as well.

But it was Queen (2014) that was the real game changer. In this film of self-discovery, the heroine is jilted by her fiancée but decides to take her European honeymoon anyway. By the time she returns to Delhi, she has blossomed from a timid bride-to-be into a self-confident young woman. The low-budget film hit a chord, quickly climbing to the top of the charts.

Since then, other films have featured male superstars fighting for women’s causes, such as Aamir Khan in Dangal (2016), or showing their feminist side, such as Akshay Kumar making rotis (flatbread) for his on-screen wife in Jolly LLB2 (2017).

That said, money in films still seems to follow men. Whether it is good roles and scripts or getting funding for a woman-oriented project or striking a good exhibition deal, the die traditionally have not been loaded in favour of heroines.

But things are slowly changing thanks to a few independent-minded filmmakers, writers and actresses. Kangana and Vidya Balan, for example, won’t play second fiddle to a male lead nor will they agree to merely “dance around trees,” even if this means making fewer films. There are also women directors such as Konkona Sen Sharma who refuse to be put in a “feminist” box. For her debut feature film, A Death In The Gunj (2017), Sen Sharma didn’t tackle predictable women’s issues, preferring instead to look at how patriarchy imposes expectations on men, affecting, constricting and brutalising them.

As in life, for every one step forward in film, there are often two steps backward. The heroine-vamp binary in Indian films may have disappeared, women may not necessarily be reduced to doormats or objects of the male gaze. But old stereotypes also have a way of coming back: Many “woman of substance” roles still mean a narrative of struggles and sacrifices.

On a more optimistic note, the upcoming Indian comedy film Tumhari Sulu, with Vidya Balan in the lead as a housewife by day and radio jockey by night, could give us an all-new endearing, fun-loving, high-spirited heroine. Such roles are just what is needed for a more prosperous future in film, in which female actresses will only make Hindi cinema flourish.

An award-winning NGO uses pop culture, media and technology to fight violence and discrimination against women.

By Soumya Pillai for The Hindu

When asked what her dreams are, 14-year-old Sunaina, who lives in a village in northern India, slipped into deep thought. After a few minutes, she said, “To get new clothes for Diwali,” referring to one of India’s biggest annual celebrations. “But what about a long-term dream,” she was prompted, “a wish you wake up to every day and want to achieve?” Another long silence, then Sunaina’s friends called her away. The question was never answered.

Back at the New Delhi office of the NGO Breakthrough India, President and CEO Sohini Bhattacharya was briefed on the encounter. “It is shocking how girls don’t have dreams and aspirations. Our society has stifled them so much,” she said.

Founded in 2000, Breakthrough India works to transform social norms and the cultures that enable them. Its goals are to empower women and young girls through education, to save them from child marriages and domestic violence, and to end gender-based sex selection and sexual harassment.

From the start, its approach has been iconoclastic: Indian-American human rights activist Mallika Dutt launched the organisation after her album and music video on women’s rights topped the Indian pop charts and won India’s 2001 National Screen Award for best music video. Suddenly, she knew that media, arts, pop culture and technology could be highly effective tools for advancing social justice.

The NGO now has offices in New Delhi and New York City, and operations in the north Indian states of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. “We started off working with victims of domestic violence,” Bhattacharya explained. “Our first campaign was ‘Bell Bajao!’ (‘Ring the Bell!’), a series of TV ads designed to help people understand that violence is everyone’s business, and that by creating an interruption when you witness it [such as ringing a neighbour’s doorbell], you are helping out.” Since 2008, “Bell Bajao!” has reached more than 130 million people in India; in 2013, the award-winning campaign went global, with spots featuring such international celebrities as Sir Patrick Stewart and Michael Bolton.

Dr. Leena Sushant, Breakthrough India’s director of research, monitoring and evaluation, said that many women still do not see violence by husbands as a problem. “When you ask them, they casually say that it’s normal for their husband to slap them when they burn a roti [flat bread] or spend more than the month’s budget. It’s difficult to help women when they don’t realise they have a problem.”

The NGO has found that it helps to take a non-confrontational approach. “Media, theatre and music are our primary tools,” said Sushant. “Preaching never works, so we try to get the people to realise the problems themselves.” For example, Breakthrough has video vans that travel to cities and villages, engaging residents in games and street theater that draw attention to violence against women.

Over the years, Breakthrough has also taken on issues confronted by young girls. Education is the cornerstone of this work, reflecting the belief that change can be brought about only if attitudes are shaped early on. It now has partnerships with two states, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, to set up projects in more than 150 schools.

Research shows that 70 percent of girls living in villages in these two states drop out of school before age 16. One of the reasons is the lack of facilities in schools, such as clean and accessible toilets; another is that traveling to and from school can be dangerous. Mentalities also play a big role: “Girls have internalised the idea that while it is acceptable for their brothers to study as long as they want, they can get educated only up to a point and eventually have to get married,” Bhattacharya said. “Our primary aim has been to get them to believe that they have as much a right to an education as their male relatives or friends do.”

Sunanina, the teen queried about her dreams, is part of a Breakthrough India programme in Haryana. The NGO has not set a deadline for measuring the impact of the programme, but it has noted that girls in Sunanina’s village are now enrolling in schools along with boys.

One of the Haryana projects is the “Share your Story” initiative, whereby mothers tell their sons their personal stories of sexual harassment and even of catcalling on public roads or at work, so that young boys know harassment is not acceptable. “When we interact with boys in villages and in small towns, we find that many of them think it’s fun to harass girls. Through the experience of their own mothers, the boys understand that it’s not funny,” said Bhattacharya.

In order to ensure an inclusive approach, Breakthrough strives to bring schools, young boys and girls, their parents and village heads on board in each community. One example is “Ratri Chaupal,” a campaign that Breakthrough India plans to launch in villages across Haryana to engage and sensitise elders. In the evening, when people are back from work, community discussions will be organised to ask village elders how to end discrimination against women.

Funded primarily through donations and sponsors, Breakthrough India has attracted the support of international corporations (Google, Oracle) as well as NGOs (Unicef, Oak Foundation) and governments (Canada, the Netherlands). The organisation, which has already won or been nominated for more than two dozen prestigious media and humanitarian awards, got a major boost in 2016 when it was named a recipient of the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship—an honor that included $1.25 million in support for efforts to scale its work and increase its impact.

Breakthrough is staffed with around 30 people, split between the US and India. While it does have the resources to tackle many issues, it does not have the power to address all concerns directly. But it can and does bring problems to the notice of government agencies, sometimes resulting in change for the better.

https://www.inbreakthrough.tv/