Neeru Rathod, Community Producer from Aapna Malak Maa, wrote about the impact of her video about violence on women. We have translated it into English from Gujarati:
Hi friends. I am Neeru Rathod. I will tell you about the impacts, solutions offered, changes in people and the actions taken by communities that the film about atrocities on women has initiated.
The film made by Apna Malak Ma was screened in 39 villages. This film was screened in Bhalgamda village in Limbdi Taluka on the 17th of October 2008 by Kanchan, community video producer and Girishbhai, distributor. Around 100 people attended the screening of the film in this village.
There were 17 women who attended the screening and out of these 17, one woman, Kashiben Kalubhai Makwana got up and spoke on the microphone and put her thoughts across the community. No woman in Bhalgmada village was ready to speak on the mic and Kashiben, who is 60 year old, got up and spoke on the mic for the first time in her life. She said, If there is any violence on women in her village then everyone will take action against it, file a police case and help and support that woman. This (violence) is a question for all our sisters and daughters. Eve teasing, mental torture, rape, all these acts will not be accepted. She left this message for all the community members.
After the screening, we collected opinions and reactions of the people and they said that for the first time in their village a woman has come up and spoken in public like this on a mic. She had taken a lead on this issue in her village.
This is just one story from a village, where the screening of this film led to empowerment. After watching this video, 3 women have filed a complaint against such violence and have sought legal help from Navsarjan organization, which gave them phone numbers to call on and assured to provide legal help.
This way all our films lead to some action taken by people and awareness on social issues and with the same hope we are making our next video on primary education to initiate more change.
You can watch the video here.
Posted by Namita Singh, VV video trainer.
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