Creativity, the key to change

Patriarchal thinking and violence is particularly common and brutal in South Asia. The declining ratio of girls and women in India, Pakistan, China, and other countries in the region, is a proof of this violence. Over 10 years ago, Professor Amartya Sen calculated and wrote 100 million women were missing in South Asia and China. “Missing” translates as “dead”. In India, alone, there are about 36 million of such missing women. No political party or religious organisation has done very much about this. While 36 million girls/women are not allowed to live, many of our leaders continue to claim that India worships its women. Yet our expressions, customs, festivals, fasts and feasts keep reminding us about the inherent superiority of men and boys, over women and girls. Consider, for a moment, the expressions for ‘husband’: pati, swami, khaawind. All of which mean owner, lord, master.

Given the universal nature of patriarchal violence, there is an increasing realisation that addressing it should also be global. Some portray this struggle as a fight between men and women. They are wrong. It is actually a fight between two value systems — one that believes in male domination and other that believes in equality between men and women. The ubiquitous nature of such violence means that fighting it demands a mass response. It means that the struggle against it has to be taken to every home, every institution, every legislature. It can no longer be perceived as just a women’s concern, or that of some activists.

Over the years, there have been various movements against such violence all over the world, various attempts to break the silence surrounding violence and to create public opinion in favour of a woman’s right to live with dignity. But the challenge remained of getting these initiatives to actually change human behaviour and make life more secure for the ordinary woman in the field, in the street, in the shanty, in the mall.

One international initiative has tried to get both men and women across the world to come together in a global campaign that goes by the straightforward title, ‘Stop violence against women and girls’. The campaign traditionally begins every year on November 25, which is the International Day against Violence against Women, and ends on December 10, which is International Human Rights Day. This year, for instance, in India alone some 72 groups participated in this initiative through a whole range of campaigns designed around the central theme of violence against women. In Delhi, people gathered at India Gate on November 25 to remember all the women who had died during the previous year as a result of violent crimes. India Gate was deliberately chosen as the venue since it is a memorial to respect and honour the soldiers who have sacrificed their lives to save the “honour” of this country. Those who gathered there asked: “What about the sacrifice of women who create human beings (including soldiers and religious and political leaders) and nurture them, who create homes and communities?” Plays, popular music shows, dance recitals followed, all with the central message that violence against girls and women must end.

It appears today, more than ever before, that if such issues are to be made accessible to the general public, rather than remaining a concern of a limited group of activists, there is an urgent need to reach out to ordinary people in a language and form that they can enjoy, understand and empathise with. The imaginative use of cultural resources is the key to any mass campaign that hopes to touch both the mind and the heart and change attitudes and behaviour.