Feminist Consciousness 

Delhi-based feminist organization Jagori has been working tirelessly for more than three decades to give an opportunity to men and women to question gender roles, attitudes and beliefs so that they can change them, and create awareness among women about their rights so they can claim them.

"I have stepped beyond the boundaries,

Traveled from the hearth to the threshold,

We cannot be stopped anymore,

We have pledged to conquer the world."  

These lines from the 1995 edition of New Delhi-based feminist organisation Jagori’s annual notebook sum up the visible shift in the discourse around women’s lives. Together with many organizations, collectives and individuals, its actions have brought together global and local campaigns for peace, non-violence and justice by being part of the courageous and insightful march to forefront women’s rights, their myriad capabilities, their multiple identities - their agency, voice and choice.  

For Jagori, 2017 was a year of freedom, safety and rights, and a year to celebrate the power of love and say no to love of power. The year began with the launch of its 11-day campaign talking about women's safety in the Capital. Held in partnership with the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, the campaign ran from January 21 to 31, 2017, across ten busiest metro stations in the city and used public messages for creating awareness among men and women on the issue and urging them to take action to end violence. "The rising incidences of sexual harassment on the metro and other public transport systems across the city point to the urgent need to go beyond the victim, perpetrator and law enforcement agencies when looking for solutions. There is a need for a collective mindset and behaviour that shows zero tolerance to the violence of any kind," says Geetha Nambisan, co-director, Jagori. Acknowledging the role of men and boys for building an equitable gender relation in the society, she adds, "Women and girls are speaking out and reporting cases of sexual harassment and violence, but that's not enough. It is the men and boys who need to be sensitised to initiate positive action towards ending violence against women. Their active engagement is required to make it possible."

Jagori that means awaken, women! started out as a collective in 1984 to build a just society through feminist values. Founded by six women and one man - Abha Bhaiya, Kamla Bhasin, Runu Chakravarty, Gauri Choudhury, Sheba Chhacchi, Manjari Dingwaney and Joginder Panghaal – Jagori has been a pioneer and a follower - a part of larger movements and processes. It started off by creating a creative space for women to express themselves and spread feminist ideology to a wider constituency of women, especially in small towns and rural areas, to articulate their experience of oppression, to know more about it and to find ways of fighting it. Over the years, it has engaged in raising consciousness and awareness building on violence, health, education, development and other issues critical for women’s individual and collective empowerment. 

To inform, inspire and empower, Jagori endeavours to reach out to women in increasingly innovative ways. To reach out to women, the majority of whom are not educated, it undertakes the development of new communication tools such as feminist songs and feminist training where the methods used were not only participatory, but also based on women’s ways of learning. “To enable marginalized and oppressed women, we undertake training, documentation, grassroots action research, advocacy and campaigning in partnership with stakeholders including individual women and their partners, community members, civil society representatives, and other state/ institutional actors,” says Nambisan.

Jagori has also been part of global campaigns such as the 16 days of activism on Violence Against Women, the Orange Day Campaign, The Anti-Street Sexual Harassment Week, and the One Billion Rising (OBR) Campaign, and closer home, it has spearheaded the Safe City Campaign. Some of Jagori’s interventions are seen as best practices around the world, including its work on gender and access to water and sanitation in low-income communities; research on women's safety in cities and the Safe Delhi Campaign and the Youth and Safety project.

The OBR campaign that began with a global call from American playwright and activist, Eve Ensler, to people around the world – men and children included – to root out violence against women and join in a global day of action on 14 February 2013. And since then, every year, a coalition of more than 65 organizations and individuals from all walks of life have worked together for this campaign as a collective along with Sangat and Jagori. The theme of the OBR campaign this year was Rights and Safety of Women Workers. A consultation on various challenges faced by women workers in the unorganised sector on March 18, 2017, was organised. "It saw an overwhelming participation of more than 200 domestic workers, sex workers, home-based workers, garment workers and homemakers from various locations in the Capital who came, shared their experiences, and learnt about schemes and efforts to ensure their access to entitlements," she adds.

Talking about the Safe Delhi Campaign, Nambisan says, “The participation of citizens in the creation of safe cities goes with a wider range of actions that are being undertaken by state and non-state actors. For example, the New Delhi Municipal Council in partnership with Safetipin is using mobile-enabled safety audit data on the perceptions of safety around metro stations within its area to enhance last mile connectivity. Safetipin is also sharing safety audit data with the Delhi Police and the Public Works Department to identify areas that are dark, unsafe and need to be improved.” The Department of Tourism is using the safety audit data to ensure the safety of tourists around specific locations.

She adds that when communities collect data on safety perceptions in their locality and share findings with relevant stakeholders, there are good possibilities for participation and action like it happened in one of the localities in the Capital where CCTVs were installed and lighting on the streets also improved. “Women are demanding safety in the form of safe transport, well-lit roads, well-constructed pavements, safe access to sanitation, better-planned cities, responsive law enforcement, legal and medical care, and timely psychosocial support. But there's a growing clamour for unconditional freedom whose boundaries are defined only by humanity, diversity, inclusion and peace, and women believe that continuous action is the only way to ensure this,” she quips.

Jagori ended the year on another high with the #16days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence from November 25 - December 10, 2017. In the third edition of this campaign, Jagori invited people to imagine what the world would look like without oppressive gender stereotypes and norms. “The objective was to engage people in re-imagining the world without gender stereotypes by asking them to think about their own choices in everyday life and highlighting stories of people facing, dealing with, and resisting gender stereotypes. By recognizing the violence in everyday words and actions and creating new ways of seeing and being stereotype-free. Lets #UnStereotype our world,” she signs off.

Work in progress

Jagori aims to deepen feminist consciousness with diverse partners at local and national levels through:

·         Feminist research and knowledge building
·         Supporting women’s leadership and agency
·         Perspective and capacity development on feminist principles and strategies
·         Providing Support Services to women survivors of violence
·         Networking for feminist movement building

Quote Unquote

“We believe we are part of the new wave of feminism. That is a defining moment for us. We also call ourselves an autonomous women’s group-autonomous of political parties and government, and in terms of our decision making. When we started we did not really have any motive to say how a feminist organization should run, but we had some commitment to a very democratic collective structure. So we did not really have designations in the organization. Everybody did everything together and a lot of work was really shared collectively." 
Abha Bhaiya, founder member, Jagori  

Awards galore

* Nari Shakti Puraskar 2016 for outstanding work for welfare and well-being of women
* The Roland Berger Human Dignity Award for 2012-13 

Activities

To enable marginalized and oppressed women in rural and urban areas with awareness and action for rights, Jagori undertakes training, documentation, grassroots action research, advocacy and campaigning in partnership with stakeholders including individual women and their partners, community members, civil society representatives, and other state/ institutional actors.

* Perspective and capacity development on feminist principles and strategies
* The Resource Centre
* Violence Intervention
* The Safe Cities Initiative
* Piloting new approaches and supporting women’s leadership
* Campaigns to raise awareness on Violence Against Women (VAW)