Breakthrough’s

Sharing her excitement, Mallika Dutt, Executive Director of Breakthrough says, “Breakthrough is delighted at Bell Bajao’s win at the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival 2010! The Silver Lion provides us with a global platform to spotlight violence against women and to ask men and boys to become partners in ending it.  Our partnership with Ogilvy is a wonderful example of the reach and success of public-private collaborations, which are essential to bringing an end to the abuse that women face all over the world.”

Bell Bajao! is a national campaign which uses the power of pop culture, media and community mobilization for outreach across India. The campaigns are based on true stories of people who joined the movement against domestic violence. Launched first in 2008, with the support of the Ministry of Women and Child Development and campaign ambassador film star Boman Irani, Bell Bajao! soon became a national movement. The campaign not only creates awareness on the issue of domestic violence but also rouses public sentiment to take action against it.

Zenobia Pithawalla, Group Creative Director, Ogilvy & Mather, Mumbai says”What makes this win even more wonderful, is the fact that this work was not created because one wanted to win an award. But because everyone from the client to the creative team to the film maker believed this was what it would take to put an end to Domestic Violence. As we celebrate this news, we would like to thank Breakthrough for always giving us a free hand and believing in our creative work as much as they believe in their cause”.

The Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival is the world’s biggest celebration of creativity in communications. As the most prestigious international advertising awards, more than 22,500 entries from all over the world are showcased and judged at the festival. Over 6,000 delegates from 90 countries attend seven days of workshops, exhibitions, screenings, master classes and high-profile seminars.

Among the five entries shortlisted from India for the Film Lions are two of the Bell Bajao ads! Creativeland Asia and Ogilvy India are the only two Indian agencies to have made it to the shortlist.

Our ads on Domestic Violence Awareness comprises a series of films urging men and boys to take action when they witness or hear violence happening in their neighbours home. It is about making the perpetuator of the violence aware that others are watching him. It is about standing up and intervening to stop that moment of violence.

Our fingers are crossed.

India’s premier fashion portal is celebrating its 4th Anniversary, on 16^th June at Sahara Star, helps Breakthrough, ring the bell with the fashion fraternity.

The popular campaign “Bell Bajao” will be integrated into the event as India’s leading designers express their solidarity for the cause.
Leading participating designers include:
Narendra Kumar, Rocky S, Archana Kochhar, Neeta Lulla, Rahul Mishra, Nachiket Barve, Babita Malkani, Krishna Mehta, Arshiya Fakih and Vizyon

These designers will showcase their collections and a Bell Bajao – Stylekandy tee-shirt that will seal their participation in the campaign against Domestic Violence.

See what the designers have to say- http://www.stylekandy.com/tabloid.aspx?stid=893

I was very anxious on the first day. Will I be able to interact with the public without any inhibitions? Well, I was as excited to find the answers to these questions myself.

It turned out that getting along with group was not at all a problem. I knew those guys pretty well and so it didn’t take long for me to feel settled and comfortable. We were to put up 3 shows in 3 places on all 3 days I stayed with them. So we would begin the day with a simple breakfast of neerdosas and shyavige – what a nice way to begin the day! Traveling in the open canter through the utterly gorgeous forest areas, the Western Ghats, huge coconut groves, banana farms with typical little South canara houses popping up every now and then, was an amazing experience by itself. And above all it was a pleasure to watch the expressions on people’s faces as they saw us pass by. Kids would want to run behind us waving and smiling, busy women would stop their work and throw quick curious glances at us, some people in the vehicles would follow us and ask endless questions…of course we were more than happy to explain to them what it was all about. A group of auto drivers (who would have watched our show the previous day) would shout behind us with their thumbs us “Bell madi” , and we would not be able to stop smiling.

The first show in the day would always be difficult. The sun would be blazing above us and the ground would be burning hot under our feet. But we would not care and nor would the crowd/audience watching us. Around 200 to 300 people would gather close to us but also there would other people watching from all corners of that particular neighborhood. Young men would climb on the vehicles, tall buildings and electric poles to get a bigger picture of it.

Well, I was only working for 3 days, so I don’t think I had enough time to watch or identify any patterns between the crowds or the audience. But I did notice that within a crowd, there were hundred different ideas and approaches and between crowds there would be hundred similarities. People would be shy initially. It would take us some effort to gather all of them around us. But the games and other activities we would conduct before the play would work on them beautifully. The minute we announce that there would be gifts for the winners there would be a big queue of people who would want to participate in the games….some people would laugh and say “it’s all their tricks to get us, don’t fall for it”. But once people started playing they would not want to stop. These activities really helped us in many ways to break many barriers between us and the audience. In fact it made people feel very comfortable and it helped us establish some kind of relationship with them. After the activities people would very promptly wait and watch the whole play and very few of them would get distracted. Sometimes they would laugh at inappropriate intervals during the play which I thought was due to some kind of resistance towards accepting what was shown, as reality. And most often people would be shy of scared to voice their opinions aloud. But once you approach them, you’d get a sea of different kinds of responses. It was just too amazing many different kinds of responses we were getting in such period of time.

Here are a few of them…

A short man in his 40s who was a pambada (pambadas belong to a particular special tribal community in south canara and they are skilled at performing the bhootharadana which is a tradition of worshiping spirits) said confidently and quite confidently that this kind of campaigns are quite unnecessary when the only cure for all the problems lies in the hands and power of the spirits. He says “if you believe in the spirit, he’ll definitely save you, there’s no doubt about that.”

Many women expressed their discomfort by very hesitantly saying “How can you say husband doesn’t have a right to beat his wife up? He owns her, he can do it whatever he wants.”

Young confident looking college girls of my age came to me quite willingly and said that they were really excited by the whole campaign and they would definitely like to do this kind of work in future.

Some men (feeling rather insecure after the play) would ask haughtily and demandingly- “well, all this is good…but women have tendency to misuse things…so we this message will not be taken in the wrong way to harass the men folk.”

In small village called Duggaldka in Sulya I overheard a group of boys discussing the way the women are treated in their own respective houses.

“My aunt always gets beaten up in the evenings…”

“My brother used to come and beat up my sister in law quite a lot, he’s stopped it now, since my father said it’s wrong to hit anyone according to the Quran”

I also met many men who said….”that they have always been against violence in their neighborhood and they think it’s the whole society’s responsibility to stop any kind of violence anywhere.”

I would be overwhelmed by so many different kinds of stories and anecdotes. My biggest challenge was to talk to the public without any biases and listen to them without judging them.

I knew I was not allowed to get either emotional or worked up. There were beliefs that had been passed on from generations to generations. I had no expectations of changing those beliefs and traditions just by a campaign.  Nevertheless I was very happy to be a part of it because it was powerful effective in its own way……it was making people think, it was making us, who are always busy and caught up in our own little worlds, wake up for a few minutes and give this new idea a thought.

So after our first show in the day, we would take a slightly longish break after our lunch. By 4’o clock we would have regained our energies and would start all over again with the same excitement and enthusiasm. There would be two more shows till nine or ten in the night after which we would be so excited and sweaty that nothing on Earth would seem to us more appealing than a cold water bath and sleep.  But I could feel within myself some kind of energy, excitement and satisfaction.

The following is the table recording all the shows which took place during the 3 days I was with the bell bajao campaign.

I was quite appalled by the stamina of the group, both mental and physical, and their dedication to the work they were doing. The response we got in the feedback sheets from the audience confirmed this. Most of the time the audience said that they had found the street plays most effective.  This was the play, the group had performed several times but as an outsider I could see that there was the same kind of commitment and effort every time they performed it. It was extremely impressive, the way they were refining it and fine-tuning it.  The feedback sessions at the end of the day and their abilities to give each other open and frank feedback showed how healthy the team was. I know from my own personal experiences. Personally my interaction with team has been very pleasant and memorable.

This has been a very rich, learning experience for me.  In these three days I have learnt to be particularly alert and observant. I had to watch each and everyone in the crowd carefully searching for different expressions on their faces as they watching the play… I would see someone nod, someone shake her head out of despair, a group of people watching the play intensely…I had to note all these in my head, so that I can approach them later. I learnt that It is so important not to offend the crowd in anyway…..well, in many situations, one had to confirm to them. I also realized that if I wanted the public to talk to me, I had to stop putting the division between myself and them. I had to become one among them to get a real feel of what they think of this whole idea.

Personally I have seen how difficult it is for one to be present anywhere fully…and not wander away by oneself.  I discovered many new things about myself. I saw that I have also been conditioned in many areas just like everyone gathered as our audience. I found it pleasantly challenging and refreshing to step out of my usual comfort zone and do new things I have never done before… The whole process has been rewarding in its own way.  However after interacting with a whole lot of different kinds/ classes and backgrounds of people, I realized that- in front of so many fixed notions, world views, images and beliefs that we still have a long way to go. Yet, by the end of these three days, I was happy and content to have been a part of this small step towards a huge change in our massive society.

I would like to thank all everyone and particularly Breakthrough for giving me this wonderful opportunity and experience that has become so close to my heart.

- This post is written by Ini Periodi, a college student, who accompanied the Video Van in Mangalore and around.

Javed Akhtar

You have already seen the Bell Bajao Cause Ambassador Boman Irani’s call to action.

The second in our series of celebrity champion voices is the veteran lyricist and script, dialog and story writer from Bollywood, Mr. Javed Akhtar.

When asked about domestic violence, he starts out by hitting hard at the very terminology of this issue. Domestic violence according to him is not a strong enough term that barely represents the horror of this issue. He says we should rather just use the word, ‘wife beating’

Another very important point he makes is that a true identity of a man is revealed in front of those who are weaker than him. If a man is violent to his wife because she is dependent on him financially or socially that means the true identity of that man is violent. It is possible that in front of the world he puts a nice face. But we must know that any man who raises his hands against a woman cannot be a good human being, it is just impossible.

He therefore calls out to the society to boycott and shun all such men who are abusive to their spouses. It is never a personal matter he says and we must collectively give out the message that abusive people are not acceptable in the society. As a call to action he specifically says that, if you know anybody who is abusive just break all relationship with him.

We are thankful to Mr Javed Akhtar for lending his voice to this pertinent issue and for being a Bell Bajao Cause Champion.

You too can be a champion voices and get a cool HTML badge for your website. Visit here for more.

Children peeping under the board to see the van activities

Our Director Education, Sunita shared this story from the Karnataka Video Van.

The video van was travelling through the interiors of Mangalore in a village in Tumbe doing interactive street theatre performance and holding discussions, when people said that the van should visit a near by school where a parent teachers meeting was on.

The principal agreed to the performance and we took the van to the school which drew immediate crowds of hyper active and delighted children who were taken in by all the audio visuals and the colorful van. On hearing that the Breakthrough team would be performing in the school hall, the children in all their enthusiasm brought out brooms and started sweeping the floor of the hall simultaneously. When told that only senior school students will be allowed to watch all the junior school kids tried to see the proceedings from behind a series of boards, running away as soon as the teachers came with the sticks.

Finally the teachers relented and let all the students watch the performance.  Their feedback ranged from enjoying the performance to letting a girl live a life free of violence.

Here are some of the cute pics from the school.

Follow all the Video Van updates here

Street theater performance

Photo courtsey, The Hindu

Editor’s Note: This personal account was submitted to us by an anonymous reader who signed herself as DJ24. She writes about her personal story and seeks some answers from the readers of this blog. Please read on and help her with your thoughts. Some basic editing and spelling and grammar check has been carried on by blog editor.

A related News on this matter here

A related previously published article on this matter here

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This guy gave me false promise of marriage and for almost 3 years he used me emotionally, physically and financially. From day one even before commitment I told him about my past that I’m a widow and have a daughter of 17 years old so there might be complications later and I am not in stage to take any kind of stress.

But still the guy forwarded his hand towards me. To gain more of my trust he took me to his parents and told them as well that he was willing to marry me. His parents without knowing or questioning me agreed to it and blessed me and told me not to leave their son. They gave me so much of love, care and respect that I was really happy and even my daughter was happy about it.

We used to often go for lunch and dinner and lots of shopping but all the bills were always paid by me. I started taking care of every body’s needs in the guy’s family, I gave them expensive gifts in occasions as I considered just as my family.

The guy wanted some time to get a nice job and settle down in his career before we could marry. He was not satisfied with his job so he was forever in search of a better job. In just one year he changed 3 jobs. Seeing him in trouble and stress I never felt like bothering him with other finances and focused on working hard for our future.

I was earning pretty well so whatever his family needed I use to get them and I was supporting him even with his past dues like car loan instalments, personal loans and his credit card bills so that his his dues were clear. I decided to not involve my family until all this was clear. I also didn’t involve my parents because I knew they will be against the relationship as he was a Muslim and me a Punjabi girl, moreover I’m mature enough to take my life’s decisions.

Years passed by but he was never satisfied with his jobs, eventually I started asking him about marriage. His words were same as always, that he wants to settle down first. I started to worry and my health was also falling. I stopped giving him and his family financial support to check what was the real deal about.

Needless to say, they changed drastically. He denied to get married and his parents told me on my face very bluntly that he is not prepared for marriage, they said, “Its not you but he doesn’t want to marry anyone.”

I was shocked and shattered I was suffering so much and even my daughter was totally broke. I got a case registered against him and his family for false promises of marriage and on the guy for rape. Now it has been a month that he is in prison and in a month they applied for bail twice in Delhi District Court Patiala House which was dismissed.

They deny a marriage on the grounds that I am not able to manage time between him and my office.

Along with the guy his parents were also a part of this game. They must have told their son to get a girl who has money so that she can fulfill all their requirements financially and satisfy him physically and when he will get bored he could throw the girl you out and wait for the next victim. His mother told me 1st day not to leave her son because in the past two female have dumped him and he was very much hurt. She forgot to mention that when their son wants to leave then I must move away.

My question is, is there no law for these kind of parents who play these games hurt a girl’s emotions. They are just like pimps, what punishment is to be given to such parents? And I want to know what can be the result in this type of cases?

He had a good time with me with no intention of getting married. After using me for 3 years he suddenly started looking for a virgin sati savitri type female to get married, after 3 years he changed his mind, not me, then why should only I suffer alone?

I really want to know the views of this blog’s readers, through their comments on my situation – this false promises of marriage by men who are so frustrated for sex and have no fear in giving false commitment and keeping a girl in dark and pretend as future husband and later talking badly about her character in court room to save himself – What should be done to them?

The Band Swarathma

The Bell Bajao Video Van is still on and is taking rounds of various parts of South Karnataka district.

On an average the Van stops 4 times a day at 4 different spots depending upon how much crowd attention we can get. A team of 10 to 12 of our rights advocates travel along with the van and takes care of the van activities. With the present van we have the Mangalore based Terikita Theatre team travelling with the van.

Usually the van activities consist of a street theatre by the Terikita Theatre Group. At the end of the theatre the actors also handle question and answer and feedback sessions. Along with the theatre there are various fun games and impromptu song and dance.

Pictures from the launch of the video van

One of our South Karnataka video van attractions is the performance by Bangalore based folk rock band Swarathma on 13^th April in Puttur.

Swarathma is a contemporary highly promising fusion band known for a visually electric stage act featuring faux-folk-horses, Bihari accents, and a Nehru Topis at various times. With music that is strong and beautiful, contemporary and relevant, hard-hitting and tongue-incheek, they’re one of India’s most sought after live acts.

The band wears their social conscience on their sleeve. They play one free show for every paid show, giving back their music to those who may not be able to watch them easily. For Bell Bajao they will be doing two free shows at two different spots in Puttur.

With this Swarathma joins the bandwagon of performance artists, like Boman Irani, Shubha Mudgal, Shantanu Moitra, Prasoon Joshi, Shankar Ehsaan Loy and more, who have joined hands with Breakthrough in the past to contribute with their art towards the cause of domestic violence.

We are proud to associate with Swarathma and hope we have more creative partnership with the band around the cause.

So if you are in Puttur be there to rock with Swarathma

Date and Time: Tuesday, 13^th April 2010, 5 pm

Venue: Kanumane, Nehru Nagara, Near Vivekananda College

Our day starts tomorrow with the Press conference in Mangalore Press Club at 11 am.

At 4.30 in the evening we have the inauguration of the van. There will be a street theatre performance and other cultural activities.

For the next 20 days the van will be travelling to various parts of South Karnataka. In the first week of May it will go to Mumbai and later in the year, perhaps around September it will go to New Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.

Red FM is our official radio partner. They will be doing live reporting of the van activity from the venue tomorrow.

Swarathma will perform with the van on 13^th April in Puttur. Red FM will also cover the performance live.

We will be sending live blogs, tweets, pics and videos on a regular basis, so keep following us on all our social media channels.

Youtube | Facebook |Twitter

The Van will have a 10-12 member volunteers team travelling with it. This team will do a theatre performance, they will handle audience questions and answers and also do interactive games. There will be gifts and contest prizes like the Bell Bajao T-shirts, torches, table clock and more.

The purpose of the van is to do mass dissemination of information on the issue of domestic violence, the various types of violence; the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 and its implementation; the intersection and the never ending circle of violence and HIV – how violence makes women more vulnerable to HIV because they can’t say no to unsafe sex with their husbands, and how being HIV+ exposes them to more and more physical and emotional violence; And finally the van will reaffirm Breakthrough’s vision that men and boys are the primary partners in ending domestic violence against women.

The issue is serious, the messages are intense but our medium is fun.

We hope you will follow the campaign and the van activity for the next few days and will extend your support by inviting your friends to join the same.

More later.