2009 Campaign PR (2/12 & 3/12):Exploring Gender Violence through theatre

For some 20 odd girls from Queen Mary’s College, Wednesday and Thursday have been about rediscovering their bodies, differentiating male gaze and societal gaze from what they really want, and in general dabbling in theatre with facilitators Mangai, Sumathi and Srijith from the Marappachi Trust.

“The workshop was largely about tapping collective experience, and providing a space for perceptions on body,” said Mangai. Exercises included role plays, body warm-ups, and even mock fashion shows. It was learning by doing, as the girls themselves realised after some exercises that it was largely patriarchal laws that governed many rules about the female body.

Even puppetry, recitation, story telling and monologues were used to get some key points across on issues like dowry and skin colour. The workshop culmininated on Thursday evening, as the girls split into groups and presented three sketches on various facets of violence against women, including female infanticide and forced marriage. That, “Women’s rights is Human rights” was the take home message at the end of the workshop.

The two-day workshop was part of the 16 Days Campaign against Gender Violence organised by Prajnya, a Chennai-based centre for public education, networking and research. “This year, many of our programmes revolve around popular art forms like theatre, poetry and music,” said Anupama Srinivasan, Campaign Coordinator, Prajnya.

2009 Campaign PR (1/12):Public Health and Gender Violence

Health care professionals – doctors, nurses and others – must be equipped with the skills and the right attitude to handle cases related to gender and sexual violence. This was the theme of a workshop on “Public Health and Gender Violence”, held at Omayal Achi College of Nursing on Tuesday. Facilitated by Prajnya, a Chennai-based non-profit centre for research, public education and networking as part of its 16 Days Campaign against Gender Violence, the workshop was jointly conducted by Dr. Prasanna Poornachandra of International Foundation for Crime Prevention and Victim Care (PCVC) and Nancy Veronica Thomas of Tulir - Centre for the Prevention & Healing of Child Sexual Abuse.

The four-hour session was interactive and included both presentations and anecdotal references to illustrate how and why gender violence is relevant for health care professionals. “The workshop was an attempt to sensitise nursing students on the importance of both physiological and psychological care for victims of gender violence,” said Nancy. “Nurses are the one-point contact in the case of a medical emergency, and have an important role to play in the case of a sexually abused patient,” she added.

The health implications of the various forms of gender violence are many, and include injuries, broken bones, psychological illnesses like neurological disorders, depression, anxiety and long term physiological diseases like arthritis, blood pressure, heart problems and Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs). “The role of a health care professional in a gender violence incident is four-fold, and includes: identifying, assessing, documenting and educating,” said Dr. Prasanna during the session. The social costs of gender violence were also discussed at the workshop.

2009 Campaign PR (30/11):Rebuilding lives, Supporting Survival

Chennai: “Domestic Violence is the most common form of gender violence,” said a participant at “Rebuilding Lives, Supporting Survival: A Roundtable for Service Providers”, held at the Madras Terrace House here on Monday. The roundtable was organised to bring together service providers who work with victims and survivors of violence, as part of the 16 Days Campaign against Gender Violence organised by Prajnya. The participants included representatives from organisations such as PCVC, Vishranti, Sahodari, Centre for Development and Women’s Studies, FORWORD and Sahodari.

The participants ascertained that domestic violence included both physical and verbal aspects, and cut across class, caste and religion. “That domestic violence is prevalent only among the lower castes is a very big myth,” opined a representative. A recent trend that came up for discussion was economic abuse. “Economic freedom is hardly found even among well employed women. It is one of the focal points for further mental and physical abuse,” expressed a participant. “Alcohol and tobacco play a major role in domestic violence,” added another participant.

The participants also spoke of the various services their organizations offered including counselling, shelter homes, rehabilitation, sensitisation, training programmes and job placements. In a unique initiative of sensitising an entire community, one of the organizations has worked with specific socio-economic groups such as auto drivers. Heightened awareness and public campaigns aimed at children and adolescents were felt to be the need of the hour in addressing this issue.

A common problem faced by most organisations is that victims don’t come forward to declare their problems, because of social taboo. “In our culture, violence against women is looked at as a private problem,” said a representative. Some of the common problems of distress that is found among gender violence victims include low self esteem, a neglected childhood, lack of parental support, etc.

Prajnya, a Chennai-based non-profit centre for research, networking and public education will launch a directory of service providers on 9 of December, the penultimate day of the 16 Days Campaign. This directory will include information about specific services as well as relevant contact information.

2009 Campaign PR (29/11):Collaborative cooking: Recipes against VAW

Ever wished you could whip up a magic dish that could destroy all the evils in the world? Well, here’s your chance to suggest ingredients to counter violence against women. From self defense training to gender neutral textbooks and banning gender violence in movies and television soaps, there are scores of ways in which we can sensitise ourselves and others around us.

Prajnya, a Chennai-based non-profit centre for research, networking and public education has launched an initiative, “Collaborative Cooking: Recipes against VAW”, to put together a giant recipe to end violence against women. All you have to do is log onto http://prajnya-16days.wikispaces.com/Recipes+against+VAW and add your recipe or ingredient.

Recipes can also be dropped off at paanais in Planet Yumm outlets at Spencer Plaza and Besant Nagar and in the traveling paanai, at the campaign’s public programmes.

Collaborative Cooking is an initiative of the Prajnya 16 Days Campaign against Gender Violence, which began 25 November and ends 10 December. To find out more, visit www.prajnya.in/16days.htm.

2009 Campaign PR (28/11):Not silence, but verse: Poetry reading

As part of its 16 Days against Gender Violence Campaign, Prajnya, a Chennai-based centre for research, networking and public education, held a poetry reading titled, “ Not Silence but Verse” at a bookstore Full Circle, here on Saturday.

Poets Susan Hawthorn, Sivakami and “Kutti” Revathi read out some of their work to a spell bound audience. While feminism was the recurring theme in each of the three poets’ works, it was the distinctive approach that each had that made the reading an engrossing one.

Moderating the reading, Professor K.Srilatha from IIT-Madras said, “Feminist poetry is like a double edged sword. Pointing outwards, the sword speaks out at the propogators of violence and those who cause hurt to women, however, pointing inwards, it is like a surgical knife- that heals and soothes.”

Susan Hawthord, a feminist activist and poet from Australia spoke about her interest in the ways in which women were demonised, much of her work revolves around this sphere. Her poem about women prisoners, “In the prisons” struck a chord with the audience. “Women find themselves criminalized for who they are and not always for what they have done,” she said.

Sivagami who is also secretary of the Chennai Poets Circle won the hearts of the audience with her passionate recitation of some of her poems like “An Unaccustomed Custom” and “The Doom of Silence”. Much of her poetry were from scenes she had witnessed in real life, or things she had read about. “ If I don’t read anything, I tend to not find anything to write about!” she confessed.

Tamil Poet ‘Kutti’ Revathi’s poems were a revelation. Mostly revolving around the politics of the female body, her poems have always been subjected to controversy and criticism. “A woman’s body takes the shape of the structure that men allot,” she opined quoting examples from advertising and films.

Earlier, a 2-hour long creative writing workshop held for college students was facilitated by K. Srilatha. It aimed at triggering thought processes and ideas for fiction and poetry writing.

2009 Campaign PR (27/11): Celebrating women, all the way

Chennai: November 27: It was an occasion to celebrate women all the way. A recital in praise of womanhood and organisations working in the area of women’s rights marked Prajnya’s ‘In Concert: Celebrating defenders of women’s rights’ musical evening held in Chennai on Friday.
The concert was organised as part of Prajnya’s 16 Days Campaign against Gender Violence. Representatives from four women’s organisations – Centre for Women’s Development and Research, Forum for Women’s Rights and Development, Feminist Association for Social Action and Pennurimai Iyakkam – were felicitated for their contribution to social justice and women’s human rights. Their work over the years was highlighted in a short presentation prior to the concert.


The event then took a musical turn as eminent vocalist S. Sowmya rendered compositions paying tribute to womanhood. Though she followed the traditional structure of a carnatic recital, she chose songs of Bharatiyar, Devi and women composers in keeping with the theme of the event. Describing her association with Prajnya, she said: “I am a little child as far as my involvement with Prajnya is concerned, but I am an active child.”
Lauding the efforts of Prajnya, Bhavani of FASA said the organisation was very innovative in its honouring of the women defenders, as the representatives of each organisation felicitated each other.


Members of the public who attended the concert contributed ‘ingredients’ into the ‘paanai’ in keeping with Prajnya’s ‘Collaborative Cooking: Recipes against Violence Against Women’ initiative.

2009 Campaign PR (26/11): Accounting for accuracy - reporting on gender violence

Chennai, November 26: How does one report a case of gender violence without sounding sensational, callous or careless? Why do certain crimes get reported over some others? These were just few of the questions discussed at the ‘Reporters’ Roundtable: Gender Violence and the Media’ organised by Prajnya, a non-profit think-tank, in Chennai on Thursday.
The roundtable, held as part of Prajnya’s 16 Days Campaign against Gender Violence, had mediapersons debating norms in reporting cases of gender violence. The session was mediated by Ammu Joseph, a Bangalore-based independent journalist.
Ms. Joseph writes on issues relating to gender, human development and the media. She is a recipient of the UNFPA-LAADLI Media Award for Gender Sensitivity 2007 and a founder-member of the Network of Women in Media, India.

In her short talk prior to the discussion, Ms. Joseph pointed out numerous drawbacks in existing media coverage of gender violence such as lack of accuracy, consistency, insensitivity and speculation. The media, she said, tended to veer between routinising violence against women to sensationalising reports.
The participants discussed the lack of a clear definition of gender violence, both globally and in Indian laws on domestic violence. The roundtable also drew attention to the pressures of competition among media houses in getting to the story ‘first’ and the packaging of news as entertainment. This often led to inaccuracies, ‘single-source’ reports on gender violence and journalists flouting rules on sensitive reporting.

The participants felt that the focus needed to shift from the victim of a crime to the perpetrator. They also mutually agreed that to have a greater impact, follow-ups and trend stories linking the crime to the bigger picture of gender violence were crucial.
The session yielded practical suggestions for reporting on stories of gender violence.