Day 1: Community Cafe with the Inner Wheel Club of Chennai United

The Community Cafe is one of our favourite formats. It seems simple but allows us to have precisely the kinds of conversations for which there is never a right time and place.

On the first day of the 2018 Campaign, we spent a couple of hours with members of the Inner Wheel Club of Chennai United and members of the team at the Shree Ayurvedic Multispecialty Hospital.

The conversation opened with a sharing by each of us on the kind of gender violence we are most familiar with, either from our experience or in the world immediately around us. It flowed from there to a discussion of entitlement and impunity. We discussed rights and redressal mechanisms, and debated why, when the law is supportive, women do not access remedies. Parenting, child sexual abuse and family support all came up as factors, as also the lack of confidence among girls and women.

We want to thank the Inner Wheel Club and Dr. Jayashree for their warm hospitality and enthusiastic participation!