Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from EKTA!

EKTA's media coverage continues to be positive. Last week a great article in the city section of The Hindu detailed our study on Tamil Nadu's Family Courts and what changes need to be implemented to make the courts more effective and accessible for women. The article can be accessed online here.

Madurai's Lotus News channel attended part of our New Year's celebration this past Saturday and members of our team gave interviews on the recent tragedy in Delhi, rape culture in India, and efforts like the Safe Cities campaign which strive to create critical changes to promote women's safety and well-being. The EKTA team is currently brainstorming how to best bring the Safe Cities campaign to Madurai, and we will begin conducting safety audits to assess existing problems in public spaces (for instance, inadequate street lighting). We are planning to unveil the results of this survey and our recommendations for fixing safety deficits at our One Billion Rising culmination event on February 14th.

In other news, we have completed our five-year plan for 2013-2017 and are looking forward to our next big projects! In the new year, OBR and Safe Madurai will be priorities, as well as capacity building efforts to create greater awareness and more effective implementation and enforcement of CEDAW in the southern region of India. 

Have a safe and happy New Year! 

 Lotus News channel conducting interviews at the EKTA office in Madurai

New Year's greetings from EKTA

Next phase planning for EKTA

The past week has been spent planning EKTA's goals and strategies for the next five years. Our ultimate goals remain the same -- creating a gender just society and eliminating discrimination based on gender, class, caste, and religion -- but we are reflecting on past strategies and reaffirming what courses of action we will need to take to meet these aims. Many of our priorities are simply being re-articulated for effectiveness and clarity, such as emphasizing the prevention of violence against women as a distinct concern, although it has always been of great importance to EKTA. EKTA will also remain committed to capacity building, research and documentation, and campaigns, lobbying, and grassroots advocacy. 

We have many continuing projects, including the Safe Cities for Women campaigns and capacity building for elected women leaders in Tamil Nadu, as well as many exciting new projects in development, so stay tuned! (Particularly for details on the culmination of One Billion Rising on February 14th, which we will be sharing shortly).

Here are some fantastic pictures from the Ahayla/OBR launch event. Enjoy! 

 Full house at the Tamil Nadu Chamber of Commerce and Industry 

 Superintendent of Police V. Balakrishnan releasing the One Billion Rising launch poster to C. Ramasubramanian, State Nodal Officer of Mental Health Programme in Tamil Nadu

The protagonist of "Ahalya," a dancer from Asmita Resource Centre for Women, Hyderabad

 Members of the Asmita dance group

 Signing the One Billion Rising pledge poster

EKTA successfully launches ONE BILLION RISING campaign

After months of preparation, EKTA and SANGAT's Nov. 28th event was a phenomenal success. Nearly every seat in the Tamil Nadu Chamber of Commerce auditorium was filled with supporters, college students, press, team members, volunteers, and honorees, and hundreds of attendees signed a pledge to join the One Billion Rising campaign on February 14, 2012. The event's main speakers -- Dr. V. Vasanthi Devi (former Chairperson of Tamil Nadu State Commission for Women), Mr. Thiru V. Balakrishnan (IPS Superintendent of Police, Madurai), and Dr. C. Ramasubramanian (State Nodal Officer, Mental Health Programme, Tamil Nadu) -- gave powerful speeches detailing their experiences and observations of the reality of violence against women in India and Tamil Nadu. Caste, economic, and educational variables all play a role in such violence, and efforts to seek redressal have varying levels of success, if redressal is even pursued. 

The speeches, while sobering, served as strong reminders of the importance of campaigns such as One Billion Rising or the 16 Days Campaign, which strive to eliminate violence against women through combined individual, regional, and global efforts. Citing the fact that an estimated one in three women -- or one billion women -- will be subjected to violence at some point in their lives, Ms. Bimla Chandrasekar, Director of EKTA, officially announced the launch of the One Billion Rising campaign. In celebration of the launch, the ASMITA Resource Centre for Women, Hyderabad, put on a beautiful and moving performance of "Ahalya," which captivated the audience with vibrant costumes, graceful and powerful movements, and a feminist moral.

The event received some wonderful press coverage; click on the link below to read more!

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-tamilnadu/violence-against-women-is-deeprooted/article4145454.ece

Nov. 26 Press Meeting

This morning a distinguished panel gathered for a press meeting at the Hotel Duke in Madurai to publicize EKTA and SANGAT, New Delhi’s November 28th event. With many members of the press in attendance, the panel presented the goals and details of the event. On November 28, as part of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, EKTA and SANGAT will host the Hyderbad-based ASMIRA Resource Centre for Women ballet group’s feminist rendition of “Ahalya” and launch the One Billion Rising campaign. Several prominent speakers will be featured: Dr. V. Vasanthi Devi, former Vice Chancellor of M.S. University and former Chairperson of TN State Commission for Women, Thiru V. Balakrishnan I.P.S., Superintendent of Police Madurai, and Dr. C. Ramasubramanian, State Nodal Officer, Mental Health Programme, Tamil Nadu.  The event will be held at the Tamil Nadu Chamber of Commerce, Kamarajar Salai, Madurai, on Wednesday, November 28 from 5:30-9pm.  

The panel consisted of Ms. Pharadam, EKTA researcher, Ms. Caroline, Women’s Studies Department Head at Lady Doak College, Ms. Bimla, director of EKTA, Mr. Prabhakaran, Public Relations Officer of People’s Watch, Dr. Shantha, Madurai Kamaraj University Rtd. Professor of Journalism, and Ms. Padma, of Deepam and Tamil Nadu Science Forum. After describing the purpose, goals, and itinerary of Wednesday's event, members of the panel took questions from the press and engaged in a discussion of existing gender-based violence and possible courses of action.

The event on Wednesday is an important tool for EKTA and SANGAT to tie several global campaigns—the 16 Days Campaign, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s UNiTE Campaign, and One Billion Rising—that aim to end violence against women in a cohesive and impactful way. While these campaigns provide a lot of room for discussion on how organizations, communities, and governments can work to prevent gender-based violence, the One Billion Rising campaign includes individuals in the struggle against such violence. Mothers, sisters, friends, workers, husbands, bosses: all can take responsibility and personally work to eliminate violence against women. It is preventable. It is intolerable. We can stand up against violence as individuals, and as a community. This is one of the most important take-away messages that I believe participant will take away from the Nov. 28th event. Our inspiring speakers and wonderful dance performance should spark a discussion on the reality of violence against women in India—what challenges do women face in their daily lives—as well as acting as a call-to-action, inspiring every attendee to work for change.

Final planning meeting

Yesterday we had a big meeting to finalize all of the plans for our event next week. We have beautiful posters to hang, hundreds of handbills to hand out, confirmations from invitees to solicit - it's going to be a busy week! Also, on Monday, November 26th, at 11am we have a press conference at the Hotel Duke in Madurai to publicize the event and discuss the significance of both the 16 Days Campaign and the launch of the One Billion Rising Campaign in the struggle against violence against women and girls. It will be a good forum to share information with the public about these efforts and the activities of groups such as EKTA and our event partners, SANGAT, New Delhi, and ASMITA Resource Centre for Women, Hyderabad.

The event itself is going to be fantastic, with 500 guests, influential speakers, and a ballet performance of Ahalya, told from a feminist perspective. This story is new to me personally, but I've heard only good things about this modern interpretation of a classic tale. If you haven't seen it (and even if you have), we hope you'll join us on November 28, 5:30-9pm, at the Tamil Nadu Chamber of Congress in Madurai!

EKTA starts mobilizing for One Billion Rising Campaign

With just two weeks left, EKTA is very busy preparing for our event on November 28th. As part of the 16 Days Campaign, we've organized a ballet production of "Ahalya," and we will also be launching the Tamil Nadu component of the One Billion Rising Campaign.

Yesterday we had a planning meeting to discuss effective ways to inform participants of the OBR campaign, which culminates on February 14, 2013, and engage them in the global effort to end violence against women. There are so many startling statistics that demand attention and action, so many personal experiences with violence that women have that need to be articulated and transformed into motivation for action. We've decided to combine a mix of handbills, posters, and short films to allow us to both share information about the campaign and violence against women (globally and in India), as well as to enable women to share their stories and motivation to stand, dance, and rise against such intolerable and preventable violence.

Inspired by this powerful video, journalism students from Madurai Kamaraj University are making short films that show forms of violence that women experience every day here in South India: eve-teasing, domestic violence, rape, dowry-related violence, female infanticide, harassment in public places. Importantly, they also show women standing up and rising against such violence, individually and together. Some of the students came to EKTA yesterday to share some clips with us, and it really was impactful to watch how quickly such violence can disturb otherwise everyday scenes such as walking to class, riding a bus, reading a book. The videos will add a lot of context to the posters and handbills, which we will use to share statistics and solicit personal motives and experiences from participants at the ballet on the 28th.

Although things are a bit hectic with so much going on, we are excited to be involved with so many global campaigns striving to end violence against women and girls, and to have the help of so many people and organizations. Please feel free to comment below on "Why I Rise..." -- we would love to hear your personal reasons for being one of one billion rising!

EKTA's 22nd Foundation Day Event

It has been a busy time for EKTA! This past Monday we celebrated our 22nd Foundation Day with the entire EKTA team and many of our supporters and friends at the Hotel Supreme in Madurai. The event included a thought-provoking and passionate panel discussion on how to "Eliminate Violence against Women; Promote Social Justice and Gender Equality," a celebration of EKTA's dedicated team here in Madurai and Cuddalore, and a recognition of the work of R. Jeyalakshmi, a journalist for Thinathanthi who has written extensively on issues women face in Tamil Nadu. A more detailed report on our celebratory event will be posted to the main EKTA website soon (www.ektamadurai.org)

We also promoted our upcoming campaigns and events to protest violence against women:  UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's UNiTE campaign, the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence campaign (25 Nov-10 Dec) and the associated "Ahalya" ballet on November 28th, and the One Billion Rising event on February 14th, 2013. More updates to come on our progress in planning and executing these. In the meantime, here are some photos from Foundation Day:

 The EKTA team

 Panel members

 Honoring journalist R. Jeyalakshmi

 We had a full house to celebrate 22 successful years of empowering women