Some of the massive protests in the last few months against unabated rape cases have brought to the fore that change in the mindset of men is the only solution to the problem. For some of the City’s youth, it is important to make men understand the meaning of manliness in the true sense. And, for this they are targeting college students,engaging them in dialogues and screen short films for them.
“Before we talk about rape cases, it is important to address the issues which almost every one of us encounters in our day-to-day-life. Like violence in intimate relationships, violence emerging from dominant gender norms and the behaviour stemming from the popular ideas of body image,” says Manak Matiyani, facilitator and team leader, Must Bol.
A campaign led by a core group of 22 young people, Must Bol explores the realities of how dominant gender norms create restrictive situations in our lives. To address the issue they invite other young people to join the dialogue and efforts to change the situation.
“As we are focusing on youth, we lay emphasis on problems like physical or mental violence in a relationship or sexual harassment in public spaces. For this we select 30 students annually, who make films on these issues. They campaign online through social networking sites and hold workshops in colleges,” says Manak.
Generally, the team makes short videos and invite people to use the internet space to share their thoughts. “Together, we want to highlight gender-based violence as a real and everyday concern. Short films are the best way to highlight the problem as well as to suggest a solution for it. Through these films students are coming to us to share their problems. Some of our best films are based on sexual harassment in public spaces and mental violence in a relationship,” says the team leader.
Since its establishment two years ago, the team has shown videos in colleges like Kirori Mal, Ramjas, Zakir Hussain, and Lady Irwin among others. They have also conducted events like poster making and debates.
Though they are not the trained counsellors, Manak and his team are approaching the sexual harassment cell of different colleges to co-ordinate with them to solve queries of boys as well as problems faced by girls. “Through our effort we are trying to raise the
consciousness of youth,”
says Manak.