Workshop provides women know-how to run campaigns

"I wanted to appeal to the prime minister about a social issue, but I realised that there are local bodies within the state that can address the issue better," said Garvita Gulhati, a first-year engineering student from Bengaluru.

Garvita has been a part of online campaigns since she was 15-year-old. However, she did not know how best to get to people to listen to the campaigns or who is the local authority she should approach or rather how condensed her campaign should be.

But not until she participated in a five-day workshop organised by Change.org in Bangaluru that gave the know-how on conducting effective campaigns.

Now, she has started a campaign against wastage of water in restaurants - 'The Year 2020 National News: Parched Bengaluru citizens take to death.'

She has already garnered over 1,500 signatures in a week for the cause.

Garvita is not the only one who benefited from the workshop.
Around 50 women took part the workshop.

The workshop, followed by a year's online course, focuses on ordinary women from different parts of the country who want to make a change in society, but do not know how.

"Training for two batches of 30 women each have already been completed. The latest was by the mid of this month," said Durga Nandini, director communications, Change.org, an online platform that provides space for people to start their own campaign.

She added that they realised that women on their online platform proved to be more consistent and self-driven than men in running social campaigns.

However, most of them did not know the basics and elements of campaigning like whom to address (concerned minister, officer or department), structuring the campaign among others.

"We believe that the word spreads through these women so that many more women can take part in the programme which helps them to conduct campaigns in such a way they reach the right person," she added.

Durga also said most of the women, in the age group of 18 to 65 years, who were part of the workshop have started their own campaigns on various online platforms.

Nandita Subbarao, a retired software employee from south Bangaluru who is starting her campaign on animal birth control said: "I have to first meet the BBMP officials to see if they can do anything about it."

The workshop also employs prominent speakers and campaigners who are experienced in successful social campaigns.

The women have started working with the government officials or the concerned departments to implement the campaigns on the ground level, Durga added.