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Newsletter: Sept-Oct 2015
Critiquing movies through a gender lens
For nearly a decade, Population First has been working to promote positive portrayals of
women and girl children in media, advertising and films. The Laadli Media and Advertising
Awards for Gender Sensitivity have been recognizing and awarding gender sensitive
reportage, advertisements, books and movies. Films in particular, don’t just crystallize new
beliefs regarding patriarchy, but also reaffirm old truths. It is truly a powerful medium to
bring about social change and we recognize that films play an important role in changing the
situation regarding gender inequality in India.
We thought it would be a good idea to highlight the Bollywood films which go beyond gender
stereotypes in portraying men and women. We also feel it is important to discuss how some
films do nothing to change the status quo.
Our media advocacy efforts have yielded a great partner to begin this dialogue. DNA Online
has agreed to carry a regular series of film critiques from a gender lens every fortnight,
written by writers and journalists working in the gender space. The idea of the critique is to
demarcate it very clearly from the regular reviews that are more about the film and less
about the sub-text and gender undertones. The format of a critique will help to mitigate the
‘currentness’ that reviews carry, and allow us to even look at older films.
Below is the link for the critique of Masaan written by Munmun Ghosh, a writer and
journalist :
http://54.254.103.229/entertainment/report-films-through-a-gender-lens-the-tearless-andfearless-women-of-masaan-2129319
‘Doosra Chashma: A travelling film festival’
begins its Journey
Population First works with a holistic approach to gender issues with a view to address the
falling sex ratio. We involve media students and the youth to sensitize them to issues
concerning gender. As part of our Laadli youth initiatives, we regularly screen short movies in
colleges to start off discussions on the subject or encourage students to make one-minute
movies on different gender issues. The next step was to involve more students and organize a
campus film festival that will showcase films with a gender perspective, drawn from around the
world.
The inaugural edition of ‘Doosra Chasma – a Travelling Film Festival’ was organized by
Population First on October 9 and 10 and was held at the film institute, Whistling Woods
International (WWI) in Mumbai. The festival, a combination of non-fiction, short fiction,
features and animations from 11 countries, including an acclaimed new documentary from
Egypt, has been designed to spark off conversations on films and gender among students. Here
are some excerpts from the coverage of our event in DNA Online by Munmun Ghosh.
Filmmakers interacted with the audience post the screenings
Talking about the film
festival, Dr A.L. Sharada,
Director of Population First
says, “This will help students
to understand gender issues
like gender violence without
feeling they are being taught
something. Also, it will make
them see that a film with a
gender perspective need not
be boring. We expect the
festival to impact students of
journalism and film-making
who are directly involved in
mainstream communication
as well as those inclined to
work for corporates or
NGOs. The festival has been
curated by noted film festival
curator Smriti Nevatia with
this agenda.”
Meghna Ghai Puri, President, Whistling Woods, who collaborated with Population First to hold the film
festival adds, “Cinema is one of the biggest influencers of society. The youth today get their cultural
and educational inputs from films. “As such, at WWI, we put a lot of emphasis on making our students
socially responsible filmmakers. Even subtle changes in ads and films can make big differences in
shaping people’s attitudes.”
Curator Smriti Nevatia says, “I think film festivals have to be fun. You have to have good films, you have
to have enough variety in terms of form and content so that people simply don't want to miss the next
film or the next discussion or the next day. Through the films and discussions one must challenge old
mindsets, outdated assumptions, encourage young people to question themselves, their societies, but
the whole point is to try and ensure they stay emotionally, intellectually, aesthetically engaged. Only then
will their work reflect a different way of looking and of being.”
VOICES FROM THE AUDIENCE
Kamal Chhedda, a student from K.J. Somaiya College, who attended the festival added, “The festival
exposed us to the realization of the problems faced by other genders. My favorites were Chasni, a
movie which used 2D animation to tell a story about acid attack victims and Arre Baba, which depicted
the bond between a father and his daughter.”
Rimitia Dutta from the same college says, “Noora, Chasni and Dream Girls were my favorite movies!
These are the kind of movies we don’t get to see in Bollywood. There are many issues around us that
we fail we notice, and when they are depicted through movies like these, they make us more aware.”
Rajshri, a freelance marketing and communication consultant adds, “The festival exposed the next
generation of film makers to social issues, opening up their minds to burning concerns that stare in our
face every day. The festival had a great mix of films by amateur filmmakers as well as seasoned
renowned ones.”
Population First plans to take this festival to campuses in Pune, Kolkata and Delhi and other
places as well to continue to build conversation around gender among students.
Connecting Gender and Climate Change –
Mainstreaming Gender
By Latha Sankarnarayan, Eco-preneur & Founder, Developmatrix Consulting LLP
Gender and climate change, strange as they may seem are interconnected with almost all
experts, economists, environmentalist, global leaders, parliamentarians and development
agencies dealing with either or both the issues recognising the need to include a strategy of
mainstreaming Gender in Climate Change adaptation programmes. Mainstreaming gender is
not just about women or women empowerment. It is as much about gender equality as about
the relationships between men and women.
United Nations (UN) and its different specialised agencies working under its umbrella are
leading the concept of mainstreaming gender in tackling issues related to economic, social and
environmental development. Its 193 member nations recently adopted the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDG) proposed by UN, which have replaced the Millennium Development
Goals (MDG). The SDGs comprise of 17 goals with each goal having specified targets totalling
169 targets that each nation has agreed to achieve by 2030. An intrinsic component of each of
the 17 SDGs goals is gender.
Combating climate change consists of two key
components – Mitigation (as in how to stop or reduce
GHG emissions) and Adaptation (how to ‘adapt’ living
in a climate changing world and protect and reduce
vulnerability of communities from impact of climate
change). Climate impacts women and men differently
and each gender is distinct in its reaction to climate
change, in each community. By understanding the
different gender perspective and being gender
sensitive to the needs of each gender in different
communities, a more robust relief or mitigation
strategy can be built.
During natural disasters women
and children are twice more
vulnerable to health issues than
men with unique health and
hygiene problems ranging from the
lack of access to sanitation and
sanitation pads, to reproductive
health caused by pregnancy and
childbirth.
India launched The National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) in 2008, which is
implemented through eight National Missions, outlining priorities for mitigation and adaptation
to combat climate change. However, it indicates no specific provisions for including specific
gender-based strategies, although efforts are on to address the gap. Just a few weeks ago, India
communicated its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) i.e. its Climate Action
Plan ahead of the COP meet in Paris in December 2015. Part of the commitment is to reduce
emissions intensity of its GDP by 33 to 35 percent by 2030 from 2005 level and to increase the
renewable energy capacity to a whopping 175 GW by 2022. The adaptation and mitigation
measures broadly look at addressing the impacts of climate change on agriculture, forest,
vulnerable communities, addressing the rise in gender inequalities that may arise and as
reducing energy utilization and clean energy as mitigation measures.
India is very vulnerable to climate change impacts, with the threat of frequent occurrence of
disasters, change in monsoon patterns and melting of the Himalayan glaciers, coupled with
socio-economic issues of population, poverty, and gender inequalities. In case of disasters too,
women and men face different vulnerabilities which is
Gender differences come up
due to conditioning of gender or societal traditions.
during disaster relief schemes
Women and children are twice more vulnerable to
where men and women are given
disaster-related issues than men with unique health
differential treatment and the
and hygiene problems ranging from lack of access to
latter are offered meager
sanitation and sanitary pads, to reproductive health
compensation. This was observed
caused by pregnancy and childbirth. Safety of women
during the 2004 tsunami and even
and children too are of bigger concern post-disaster
in schemes offered to debt-ridden
with women especially vulnerable to sexual violence
farmers for drought relief.
and abuse.
During the recent massive earthquake in Nepal, there
were reports the survivors facing threats of human trafficking for sex trade. Local health
workers and the international disaster relief volunteers made efforts to create awareness on
sexual harassment and warn the survivors about traffickers luring in the guise of relief workers.
The Nepal police also imparted self-defense training to the women and girls in the relief camps
to enable them to ward off sexual abusers and traffickers.
Gender differences are also to be noted in post-disaster relief aid and compensation like
granting title deed, compensation packages, care and shelter for orphaned children, etc. As an
example, post the aftermath of the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004, in Tamil Nadu, an
overwhelming majority of livelihood programs were implemented for men of the fishing
community and just some meager
earning ones for women. The fishing
vessels offered was over-provided, and
better than the ones the fishermen lost,
with many not even knowing how to
operate the new motorized ones.
Traditional belief that women shouldn’t
operate a boat in the fishing community
stopped
the
authorities
from
compensating them with boats and
instead the compensation offered was
meagre.
Preparedness to disaster and planning is as important as post-disaster relief work. Maharashtra
followed Odisha, to make its disaster management plan gender-sensitive with a separate
strategy for the vulnerable women population. The plan gives guidance on dealing with the
reproductive and sexual healthcare needs of girls and women when a disaster strikes as well as
separate needs of the disabled population. It includes services for expectant mothers such as
the provision of gynecologists and obstetricians, trained midwives and sterilized delivery kits
under the Minimum Initial Service Package (MISP).
Men and women contribute differently to the GHG emissions that cause global warning. In rural
India, still about 67% of cooking is through non-conventional methods like firewood, cow dung
and even coal in some coal-rich areas. Not only do these pollute the air through emissions, but
also it affects the health of women and children. A key part of the clean energy policy of the
Government of India is the ‘Give it-up LPG’ campaign; with an attempt to give more LPG based
cooking stove access to needy households in rural areas. Promoting ‘smokeless’ but energy
efficient cooking ecostoves is also part of the new climate action plan.
Agriculture
and
livestock
contribute
significantly to global GHG emissions and also
climate change impacts agriculture in a big
way. For India, one of the biggest threats of
climate change is food security and agriculture.
The varying weather patterns caused by global
warming affect the monsoons heavily. India is
already witnessing extremities of floods,
droughts, and unseasonal rainfall, all of which
impact the agriculture-based economy and the
big farming community. On one hand droughts are causing fields to grow dry and on other
hand, floods cause the fields to be washed away, creating ‘climate change’ refugees. Women
traditionally are entrusted the role of feeding the family and threat to food security causes
immense stress. Repercussions of over-reliance on pesticides and certain cash crops are
aggravating the extreme climatic conditions. The advent of this green revolution emphasized on
high-yield varieties of crops, whilst the traditional farming knowledge was based on adapting to
weather, soil conditions and changing crop varieties. This knowledge existed in different
communities with the older generation of men even being able to predict the weather
conditions based on soil patterns. There are efforts by local organizations to tap into this
immense traditional knowledge of local communities in identifying native seeds that are
drought-resistant and water management processes through seed bank and watershed
management projects.
Statistics based on the 2011 Census report show increase in women working as contract
laborers in other farms, owing to loss of farm due to climate change impact. Despite, this when
calamity like droughts or flood affects farmers and farmer suicides are reported, one hardly
hears about the female laborer/cultivator nor are there any female representation on
committees formed for benefits of farmers. With most government schemes meant aid farmers
requiring proof of ‘owning’ land, the huge female laborer/cultivator community gets left out. A
more gender-oriented National Climate Action Policy can help in addressing these inequalities
that are acutely impacted by climate change. There are also conscious efforts by the Union
Government to allocate resources and plan schemes for the growth of the agriculture sector
through gender-budgeting.
Thus climate change is not just an environmental issue, it’s a social issue – it’s a gender issue.
With use of gender perspective, we will have a better chance of combating climate change as
well as adapting well to its impacts.
Latha Sankarnarayan, is a sustainability and CSR consultant, an early entrepreneurs in
sustainability consulting and co-founder of Developmarix Consulting LLP, a woman-led social
venture based in Mumbai, India. Developmatrix, follows a strategic approach to tackle
sustainability and CSR issues, creating a sustainable value for both business and the
community. Latha can be connected at [email protected] or through
twitter @developmatrix
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