‘We Can’ Campaign: people-to-people communication for change

Communication initiatives that seek to question gender imbalances, need to bring these issues into the public domain. The belief that violence against women is a ‘private’ issue has to be challenged. The victims need to speak out and the perpetrators need to be questioned. Devising communication strategies to tackle the issue of violence against women in South Asia, where one in every two women faces domestic abuse, is by no means an easy task. Communication (or more precisely information, education, communication) needs to challenge deeply entrenched social attitudes (that view violence as a ‘normal’ practice and not as a punishable offence) and hopefully alter them by suggesting alternatives. The social acceptability of violence against women in South Asia can be challenged only by addressing the root causes of this malady, which include–a deep-seated gender-bias, customs and practices that endorse inequity and discrimination. However, there are no readymade blueprints to redress this pervasive culture of gender-based violence. There are no instant solutions; therefore any efforts made in this direction have to be long-running and well sustained. Communication initiatives that seek to question gender imbalances, need to bring these issues into the public domain. The belief that violence against women is a ‘private’ issue has to be challenged. The victims need to speak out and the perpetrators need to be questioned. Social change can occur only when a large number of people begin to see violence against women as a shocking and an unacceptable violation rather than an invisible norm. As Friedensreich Hundertwasser has remarked, “When one dreams alone, it is only a dream. When many dream together, it is the beginning of a new reality.” Communication strategies need to accommodate contradictions to address violence against women. It has to be sufficiently personalised to address every member of the community but also talk to the society at large. Messages need to be realistic, use instances culled from everyday life that are easy-to-comprehend. At the same time they need to be innovative enough to capture public attention. The communiqué needs to be sharp and focused to advocate on a few crucial issues but also direct attention to the larger realities that lead to violence and discrimination against women. Also, while the messages need to be firm, the communication strategies need to be flexible enough to incorporate changes if the situation so demands. Conventional modes of communication would have to be used to carry messages to the common people who do not have access to sophisticated technology. But the messages themselves need to defy conventional attitudes and practices. Also, the criticism of current practices needs to be balanced by portrayals of violence-free relationships within the home and the community. As manifestations of violence against women vary from country to country, communication challenges intensify. The region’s concerns may be common but not the solutions. Communication strategies would thus have to be country-specific and yet address the region’s common crisis. A profiling of South Asian women shows that social, cultural, economic and legal factors combine to leave a woman open to community-sanctioned violence. In this region, violence begins much before birth and continues throughout a women’s life. Unborn girls are killed through sex-selective abortions. Every sixth death of a female infant in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan is due to neglect and discrimination. Most girls and women endure daily beatings, harassment for dowry, verbal abuse and acid attacks for refusing to comply with male demands. Other women become targets of extreme forms of violence like incest, rape, public humiliation, trafficking, honour killing and dowry deaths. The scale and severity of violence against women in the region is on the rise. More than 50 million women are ‘missing’ from the South Asian population, as a result of discrimination and violence. There are now only 94 women for every 100 men in the region. Sex-selective abortions have distorted the ratio of girls to boys among children below the age of six and the skewed sex ratio for children below the age of six is predicted to worsen. The ‘We Can End All Violence Against Women’ (‘We Can’ campaign) aims to end all violence against women in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Afghanistan. It is a six-year, six-country South Asian regional initiative launched in 2004 by the ‘We Can’ alliance - a coalition of over 400 organisations, collectives and individuals. The focus of the campaigns in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, Nepal and Afghanistan is on domestic violence, while in Pakistan the emphasis is on honour killing. In the next six years, the campaign allies will seek to target awareness-raising interventions at the community level; mobilise all sections of the family, community and society to act to prevent violence against women; encourage formulation and implementation of appropriate gender-equal policies and programmes; and bring together diverse local, national, regional and international efforts working towards ending violence against women. The ‘We Can’ campaign primarily uses a simple people- to- people communication approach as it believes that involving communities is critical in challenging the prevailing discriminatory gender attitudes. The premise is that it is necessary to involve both men and women to prevent and ultimately end abuse against women. As people can influence people and bring change inattitudes and behaviours, the campaign enlists Change Makers – a people’s collective that actively encourages positive attitudes and behaviour towards women within the communities they live and work in – to communicate the campaign’s message. This unique, personalised method of communication is meant to persuade every member of the community to play a role as a Change Maker, both in their personal capacity and as a member of the community. Ultimately, the idea is to induce change in gender-biased attitudes. A Change Maker is a person (or group of persons) who believes that violence against women is wrong, is/are willing to change community attitudes/behaviours, and stand up against those who perpetuate abuse. Change Makers could be radical activists like Santosh, a 22-year-old student from Shree Baldev Degree College, Varanasi, India, who continues to fight for women’s rights despite suffering injuries to his legs. He has mobilised students to protest against sexual harassment of girls within the campus and urged them to participate in elections to fight issues like gender discrimination. Or, they could be like Ram Prasad of Salari village, Khedi block, Ajmer (Rajasthan), India who used a specially designed ‘We Can’ postcard with a message urging people to end violence against women; to invite people for his newly born son’s mundan. Sending a post card may not seem to be an effective communication strategy. However, it’s a fallacy to think so. By highlighting the issue of gender-violence in an invitation for a religious ceremony, Ram Prasad has shown his community that violence against women is not an abstract concept, rather it relates to their own lives and actions. The ‘We Can’ campaign has been working in a variety of ways to reach men and women across South Asia and initiate public involvement. They are: highly visible and coordinated community mobilisation events public education events cultural festivals interactions with students meshing campaign message into outreach programmes of civil society groups and universities use of mass media distribution of posters, leaflets, stickers, booklets, pamphlets, t-shirts and aprons with campaign messages dissemination of messages on private television, slides in cinema halls, billboards use of informal communication methods (street theatre, mural paintings; wall paintings and posters behind rickshaws and comic cards) and unique sign-up and celebrity endorsements Rallies (on foot, cycles, rickhshaws, boats, horse carts, camels); protest marches (silent marches), candle-light processions, door-to-door-campaigns; and the formation of human chains have been a part of the mass mobilisation programmes in the six countries. They may not all be unique but the campaign has managed to use them with dramatic effect to force the issue of genderbased violence into public attention. Public education events have included cultural festivals (dance, plays; puppetry); seminars; workshops; debates; open meetings with policy makers, eminent personalities, survivors of violence and Change Makers; endorsement of the campaign by well-known public figures (Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and well-known actor Rahul Bose in India; Her Excellency President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga in Sri Lanka; Bharat Mohan Adhikari, Deputy Prime Minister of Nepal to name a few), orientation programmes for students, teachers and civil society organisations; film shows, games; painting competitions, and poster and photo exhibitions hat travel to various places. Once again, the method may be common but not the approach. At the launch of campaign in India, for instance, students had specially adapted traditional and folk dance and drama forms (a potent medium of communication that cuts across the barriers of class, caste and language) to render their interpretation of the campaign theme. They used traditional theatre and music forms to challenge attitudes that cause and prolong marginalisation, prejudice and violence against women and encouraged the audience to consider violence-free futures. The poster exhibition in Quetta, Balochistan (Pakistan) on honour killing was among the first of its kind. Posters in English, Tamil and Sinhala in Sri Lanka that use powerful images like handcuffs have elicited a strong public response as have their T-shirts, book marks, calendars and press advertisements. In Bangladesh, mural paintings and posters have been used in a big way to highlight the various manifestations of violence against women. The campaign also actively approaches the media through press conferences, briefings and a series of advertisements on violence against women. The media coverage in South Asia has been consistent and wide so far. To unite the campaign across the region, a campaign identity in the form of a graphic logo and strapline has been created. A website (www.wecanendvaw.org) is used for online promotion and a quarterly newsletter provides updates of the campaign in each of the six countries. In Sri Lanka, water tanks in tsunami-related camps are providing an unexpected platform for the campaign messages. The tanks make perfect canvases; the messages are visible to all and they generate discussion and debate. Note: This article is contributed by Oxfam (India) Trust on behalf of ‘We Can’ campaign allies.

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