The Change Makers Evening, organised by the ‘We Can’ campaign alliance at the British Council, New Delhi, on April 23, 2005, brought into sharp focus the role of ‘Change Makers’ -- men and women who will actively encourage more positive attitudes and behaviours towards women within communities in which they live in and work -- to reduce social acceptance of violence against women in six countries of South Asia.

In his welcome address Edmund Marsden, Director, British Council, underscored the significance of the campaign and the need to involve the entire community through public events such as this. Warmly appreciative of the photo-exhibition organised by the Centre for Media and Alternative Communication on the subject of Equal Relationships Are Violence Free, he said, that it will instigate people to think on the subject that and bring it into public domain and attention.

A group of students led by Vidya Shah of Breakthrough, a New-Delhi based organisation that uses education and popular culture to promote public awareness and dialogue on human rights, welcomed the participants vibrantly with songs on gender equality that urged people, especially the youth, a huge segment in the country, to lead the process of change.

Explaining the premise of using change makers as an integral part of the ‘We Can’ campaign, Poonam Kathuria, Member of the ‘We Can’ Gujarat Alliance, said, violence against women is committed by some but tolerated by all.

To bring about transformation in community beliefs and practices on violence against women, it is necessary to challenge assumptions and practices that perpetuate violence and force communities to re-examine them. The ‘We Can’ campaign, she explained, aims to do this through change makers who will proactively influence people to change their attitudes and behaviours.

Preventing violence against women requires commitment and the engagement of the entire community. Change makers can help involve people at all levels -- home, family, community and society -- and make efforts to transform ideas, attitudes and a whole way of life, she said. Building alliances among people and organisations is an important part of this, she added.

She stressed that at this stage the focus of the ‘We Can’ campaign is on the youth. “Substantially and demographically significant in numbers, youths signify energy, aspirations, enthusiasm and ideals and hope,” she said.

Allison Aldred, Regional Director, Oxfam GB, South Asia, argued that changing community norms is a long, arduous process. The ‘We Can’ campaign will use a two-pronged approach to achieve this: it will challenge social attitudes that accept violence against women as ‘normal’ and use change makers to build a community-based movement to end violence against women and sentisise policy makers.

She commented that by 2011, the six countries plan to mobilise over five million change makers. They in turn will reach and influence 50 million ordinary men and women to oppose violence against women. By doing this, the ‘We Can’ campaign hopes to symbolically link up with the issue of 50 million ‘missing women’ in the region.

Aldred underlined that change makers will be ordinary people, but extraordinary for their willingness to speak up. Their efforts will ensure that women will have safe and violence free life; a right that is theirs and deserve to have.

Releasing the Change Makers Tool Kit, a collection of essential and practical resources that change makers of the ‘We Can’ campaign will use to influence and change community attitudes on violence against women (particularly domestic violence) and a set of four posters, Dr Syeda S Hameed, member, Planning Commission, said, such a campaign would need to be linked to a multi-faceted and wider social change process that would link awareness to action.

Calling the case of 50 million missing women in South Asia as a ‘big blot’, Hameed said that thinking has already begun on the Approach Paper to the Eleventh Five Year Plan (2007) it is important to reflect the concerns on violence against women at this crucial juncture so that policy can be strengthened. She said that at least five of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) relate to women, and men have to accept women as equal partners. A lot more, however, needs to be done, she added.

“As a member of the Planning Commission, I assure support of the Commission and its leader, who is none other than the Prime Minister, to this issue,” she added.

The participants were offered a glimpse of the Tool Kit developed in four languages – Hindi, Gujarati, Orissa and Telegu. It includes activity cards, posters and comic cards. This was followed by the felicitation of Haku Shah, eminent scholar and artist, who has designed the theme poster for the campaign. “Women who remain invisible need our support to make their voices heard. We can all contribute to make this happen,” he said.

Noted poet and lyricist, Javed Akhtar, who came from Bombay to endorse the campaign, rendered the campaign theme song that he had especially composed. He said, “'I feel strongly about this issue and any man who has an iota of decency should feel this way.'

”Technology,” he said, “has made brawn irrelevant. Fights can now happen by the feather touch of a button. Women have also been confined to a small canvas for long. When you are given very little then, you see more and you develop an eye for detail. This is a world where nuances are important and where aggressive broad strokes are not needed. The Ministry of Education in Britain had commissioned a study because they found that out of the 50 people who gave examinations, 38 were women. Soon all architects, chartered accountants and engineers will be women.''

He added that as the future undoubtedly belongs to women and it is important to prioritise women’s social, economic and political empowerment.

Noted danseuse, Aditi Mangaldas, performed a taut and starkly choreographed dance entitled Lament that decried violence. Dressed in black and performing to sombre music, Mangaldas held the audience captive with her superb and fluid movements. “As a performer, it is terribly difficult to perform on such issues like violence against women that defy depiction,” she said.

Outlining the significant role played by UNIFEM in the campaign against violence against women since 1998, Chandni Joshi, Regional Programme Director, UNIFEM, said it was heartening to see other organisations doing the same. “Seeing social mobilisation on the range of the ‘We Can’ campaign is heartening and I wish to reiterate the support of UNIFEM to the campaign,” she added.

Her inauguration of the photo exhibition on Equal Relationships Are Violence Free at the British Council Gallery provided a grand finale to the evening. On display were the works of 21 photographers from India and Bangladesh. Joshi observed, 'A picture says more than a thousand words. The photos in this exhibition are telling us that the statistics on violence against women are true. We women just cannot just lament and cry on each other's shoulders. We need the men to be with us.'

The idea behind the photo exhibition has been to instigate the photographers to think on the theme and provoke the viewer to do the same. Curator of the show, Parthiv Shah, Centre for Media and Alternative Communication, said that an exhibition of this nature is important to force the issue of violence against women – a subject cloaked in secrecy and silence – into public attention.

He explained that the exhibition has been planned in a manner to allow for easy dismantle of exhibits so that it can travel to various cities in the country. He said arrangements have been made to accommodate fresh photographs as the collection begins to grow. There are also plans to create a catalogue to collate all the exhibits into a volume to reflect the progress of the exhibition and participation from neighbouring countries.

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