In all, the MAAR project hosted 15 events, in New Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Pune, and Kottayam. These included panel discussions, film screenings, workshops, and street and forum theatre performances.
Across the venues, we reached an audience of more than 1,100 people, including journalists, UN representatives, NGO workers, educators, and students.
In November 2018, MAAR hosted a launch event in New Delhi to coincide with the UN International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (25 November). We presented findings from our initial research in 2018, one of the largest comparative content analysis of news reporting of rape in India, covering ten newspapers across six languages in India for a three-month period (June to August 2018).
Panel debates
Gender Issues & Sexual Violence: the Role of Doctors
Dr Jagadeesh Reddy and 9 other professors, including the head of the committee for sexual harassment were on the panel moderated by Dr Farman Ali, CMD, Docfort Meducation.
| Moderator Dr Farman Ali Docfort Meducation |
| Discussants Dr Jagadeesh Reddy, Head of Forensic Medicine Dr Pratibha Nadig Dr Mangala Subramnian Dr Varsha Mokhasi Dr Murali Mohan Dr Ramya Shruthi Students |
Docfort Meducation
Vydehi Medical College
Media reporting of sexual violence: Why, what and how much?
UNESCO Auditorium, 1 San Martin Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi
Panellists
| Moderator Pamela Philipose, Public Editor, The Wire |
| Discussants Neha Dixit, Independent journalist |
| Lalitha Kumaramangalam, Director, India Foundation and former Chairperson, National Commission for Women |
| Anju Pandey, Ending Violence against Women (EVAW) Programme Specialist, UN Women |
| Rituparna Chatterjee, Independent journalist, Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Runs @IndiaMeToo |
| Vakasha Sachdev, Associate Editor (Legal), The Quint |
Followed by the Premiere film screening of: The Six Faces of Sexual Violence
Interaction with director, Dr K Hariharan, Professor of Film Studies and Broadcast Television, Ashoka University.
UN Women
Ashoka University
Sexual violence and the media: what must change?
Xavier Hall
St Joseph’s College
PG Block and Research Centre
Langford Road, Bangalore 27
Panellists
| Moderator Ammu Joseph, Independent journalist and author |
| Discussants Dr Jagadeesh Narayana Reddy, Professor and Head of Forensic Medicine, Vydehi Institute of Medical Sciences & Research Centre |
| Laxmi Murthy, Contributing Editor, Himal Southasian |
| Ragamalika Karthikeyan, Deputy News Editor, The News Minute |
| Samar Halarnkar, Editor, IndiaSpend.com |
| Sandhya Menon, Journalist |
| Uma, Jeeva |
Network of Women in Media, India
St. Joseph’s College
#MeToo and the Politics of Representation
Panellists
| Moderator Dr Shilpa Phadke School of Media and Cultural Studies (SMCS), Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai |
| Panel members will be announced shortly. |
School of Media and Cultural Studies (SMCS), Tata Institute of Social Sciences
Effective Use of Media & Communication: How can doctors play a bigger role in the elimination of violence against women?
Panel discussion with doctors at Fortis La Femme, Bangalore moderated by Dr Farman Ali.
Screening of video #ConsentConversations: interviewing different students about what consent is. Followed by audience interaction.
Docfort Meducation
Fortis La Femme
Sex, violence and sexual violence
Conversation on institutional collaboration to change the language of gender-based violence.
| Moderator Dr Farman Ali, CMD, Docfort Meducation |
| Discussants Dr Prathima Reddy, Director of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Fortis La Femme Dr Aruna Muralidhar, Associate Director of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Fortis La Femme Dr Krishen BR, Consultant Psychiatrist, Fortis La Femme Dr Kaushik K Narayan, Medical Superintendent and Head Medical Process, Fortis La Femme Rishikesh KB, Assistant Professor, Christ (Deemed to be University) |
Screening of #ConsentConversations, a video by Sharin D’Souza
#16Days – The Journey: Presentation by Anna Thomas, Head, Medical Journalism, Docfort Meducation
Docfort Meducation
Performances and workshops
The Woman Wants to Know: How Media covers Rape in India
A forum theatre piece performed by the Natak Society and the Comedy Club
Venue: MPH, SSLA
The event has been organized to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
Forum theatre is an interactive form of theatre that uses audience participation to look at larger conversations prevalent in the world today. Through this event the audience would have the opportunity to not only view a certain unfolding of events, but also create their own narratives by participating along with the actors.
Symbiosis School of Liberal Arts
The Natak Society and the Comedy Club
News coverage of sexual violence
Journalism workshop on news reporting of sexual violence and practical approaches to critiquing reporting conventions.
Venue: Malayala Manorama School of Journalism
Malayala Manorama School of Journalism
Say NO!
Sexual safety awareness workshop
Venue: Hoskote Govt High School
Docfort Meducation
MVJ Medical College
Thilidhirali Baale (Girl, you should know this…)
Sexual safety workshop by Docfort Meducation..
Organised by Being Social.
Venue: needbaseindia.org
Docfort Meducation
‘We the survivors’
Awareness programme against child trafficking in textile mills. Conducted by students at the Dept of Criminology & Criminal Justice Sciences, Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli.
Interaction with mill workers who have been exploited under the guise of the Sumangali Scheme
Docfort Meducation
Manonmaniam Sundaranar University
Orange the World
Department of English, Stella Maris College, Chennai
Screening of #ConsentConversations, a video by Sharin D’Souza.
Live sketching session by artist, Nancy Rachel.
Performance poetry by Michelle Ann James, spoken word artist.
Docfort Meducation
Thorny Fence, street theatre
“Thorny Fence” is one of the byproducts of the three day theatre workshop conducted by the numero uno folk and theatre arts intellectual of Tamil Nadu, Mr Kaleeswaran, Director, Alternative Media Centre, Chennai the previous week.
University of Madras
Capacity building workshops
In the third phase of the MAAR project, May to October 2019, we will conduct capacity building workshops in partnership with UNESCO to train journalists in best practice guidelines on news reporting of rape and gendered violence. These will take place in urban and regional locations.