OBR short film launch - tomorrow!

EKTA will be releasing our One Billion Rising short film (made by students of MKU) tomorrow! We are very excited to share this video with everyone, so try and make it if you can! The event will be held tomorrow evening (31.01.2013) from 4-6pm at the YMCA Hall Madurai. Below is the official programme with detail events. 

Safe Madurai & the Southern Regional Consultation on DCSR

It has been a whirlwind couple of weeks at EKTA. After Pongal, we hosted Rejita from Sakhi, Kerala. Drawing on her experience conducting the Safe City study in Kerala, Rejita led a training session on planning, implementing, and evaluating the results for a similar study in Madurai. After a day of discussing the technical aspects of safety audits, formal and informal surveys, choosing target areas, etc., we headed to Periyar Bus Stand (the main stand in downtown Madurai) to conduct our first safety audit. Observing physical attributes and eliciting the experiences of women users of the public space, we developed a detailed, multifaceted map of Periyar's safety deficits. This map, along with similar ones drawn up by college students at other strategic locations around the city, will be used to develop specific recommendations to improve women's safety and sense of well-being in public spaces in Madurai. As mentioned previously, EKTA will release an action plan on February 14th at our One Billion Rising event, and intends to use this initial study as the base from which to launch a more comphrensive, city-wide study to assess safety of public spaces for women. 

Asking a young woman about her experiences with violence at Periyar Bus Stand

While some EKTA team members conducted further safety audits with female college students in Madurai this past week, other members drove to Chennai to facilitate and participate in the Southern Regional Consultation on the declining child sex ratio (DCSR) in India. Organized by EKTA, with support of the National Foundation for India and the United Nations Population Fund, the consultation brought together NGO representatives from 6 states (and a Union Territory) -- Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Pondicherry, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Odisha. Over 3 days, participants discussed statistics, indicators, and historical trends related to DCSR, identified root causes such as son preference, dowry, and safety and security concerns, shared successful and ineffective strategies to combat sex-selective abortions and female infanticide, and analyzed the language and implementation of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act and the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex selection) Act, among other things. Participants also made plans to continue this information-sharing process in the future to build a more wide-reaching and effective effort to address DCSR. A more detailed report on the specifics of the consultation will be available shortly on the EKTA website. 

Both the Safe Cities training and the DCSR demonstrated the importance of solidarity and collective effort of women's groups. At times, it can seem as though the challenges NGOs and women's activists face are insurmountable. However, through building networks, sharing successes, and devising new strategies to address common problems, it is clear that true progress can be made.

The beautiful lily pond at CRëNIEO, where the Southern Regional Consultation was held

Happy Pongal!

Happy Pongal from EKTA! 

EKTA hosted a Pongal celebration at our training center in Kodimangalam for friends, staff, and colleagues on Saturday. Participants drew beautiful kolam designs, made delicious sweet pongal, enjoyed freshly cut sugarcane, and discussed EKTA's upcoming activities, such as Safe Madurai and One Billion Rising. It was truly a lovely afternoon spent celebrating with friends. 

 

Safe Madurai & a look back at 2012

We had a brief meeting today to discuss the safety audits that local college students and EKTA team members will be conducting across Madurai in the next few weeks. The auditors will travel 5 or 6 routes that the students frequently take to get around the city (for instance, from a busy bus stop to Periyar bus stand) and take note of safety deficits and areas that feel unsafe. These audits will be conducted multiple times. The goal is to gain similar assessments of problems and recommendations for creating a safer Madurai as presented in this study on the safety of women and girls in public spaces in Kerala.

Another on-going project is a review and analysis of all of EKTA's activities in 2012. It is astonishing what a busy year we had! Looking at our projects month-by-month really demonstrates the comprehensive and multifaceted approach ETKA takes to work towards gender equality and the promotion and protection of women's human rights. Here's a list of  some of the diverse trainings, campaigns, and initiatives we've pursued over the last 12 months:

• Participated in a national consultation on the declining child sex ratio in India
• Ran several gender equality seminars and gender & masculinities workshops at colleges and universities across Madurai
• Participated in the UN Women's Consultation on violence against women
• Launched the One Billion Rising campaign, which continues to February 2013
• Part of the People's Budget Initiative at the national level to develop suggestions for the Finance Minister
• Partook in the CEDAW Alternative Report planning consultation in Delhi
• Began and completed an extensive study on women's voting patterns in Tamil Nadu and Orissa, in collaboration with CARE India
• Continued our governance program and trainings, in collaboration with The Hunger Project, with elected women leaders
• Executed the 16 Days of Activism campaign, which included a mobile van campaign that brought information on gender-based violence to women and men in villages in Tamil Nadu
• Conducted group and individual counseling at schools for at-risk students
• Participated in South Asian Women's Day celebrations 
• Helped to launch a new initiative of the Women's Coalition for Change
• Organized and conducted a 10 day capacity building training course on gender and development for women activists from Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka (with our partner SANGAT New Delhi)