Women‚Äôs Development Cell of Shivaji College in its efforts to generate awareness about gender equality organized a workshop ‘Gender and Media: From Margins to Mainstream ‘ on September 19, 2017.¬†The workshop was organised in collaboration with Breakthrough and Alliance India.
Ms Simran Sheikh representing  Alliance India, a not-for-profit Indian organisation expertise in a range of disciplines including HIV, sexual & reproductive health, human rights, resource mobilisation, advocacy to name some few, enlightened us with her words She engrossed the audience in her interactive session, starting with a question РWho am I?
Pointing toward the society and their acceptance to ‘other gender’,she says they can call me “A woman with a Man’s voice”, claiming that “Just because I am wearing a sari does not mean she is a woman”, she continued with the idea where in their community their identity is expressed by their claps or plating, “Meri¬†pehchan¬†tali hai”. She pondered over the idea of this identity in a society. She elaborated that how culture, ¬†traditions, family, neighbours bind us in some specific roles, “although it’s ¬†not bad to follow them but to impose becomes a problem”. She reinforced the fact, to not be judgemental by seeing the person’s appearance. Her community she believes is, ¬†”Visible yet invisible”, seeing the ignorance of people where they don’t even bother to identify them as a gender. In the end, she concluded with a trio vision of “Inclusion, Humanity, and Justice”.
Our other guests Mr Pavel Sagolsem and Ms Priyanka Sinha from Breakthrough, enlightened us about the role of media in gender discrimination in our country. Where the non-profitable organisation  challenges the status quo and take bold action for the dignity, equality, and justice of all.
The interactive session included a bunch of videos explaining to the audience how advertisements can bring a change in the outlook of the society towards many orthodox norms. Ring the bell, Titan Raga and many other add campaigns which have been seen on television over the years were shown. In this interactive session, the speakers also took inputs from the Audience about what they thought of these videos, and how they felt about the ads.
Few volunteers from the Audience were divided into groups and were asked to prepare an advertisement on gender equality. The volunteers took up the task with great enthusiasm and we witnessed great work from young creative minds. The speakers ended their session with a hope that their session would help the young minds change to a path of equality and justice to all.
The interactive session brought a change in the vision of the student’s, inclining them to think over the mainstream norms.
