This past Sunday was a hub of activity at the Central Park of Delhi’s all-time favourite open-air shopping haunt—Connaught Place. By the end of the day, One Billing Rising, a global campaign to raise a voice to oppose violence against women successfully spread its message of ‘freedom, equality, and dignity for all’.
The mammoth event, comprising of 40 organisations, over 30 volunteers, and thousands of people as audience had a single message— ‘unity and solidarity in the fight against patriarchy’.
Celebrated globally since 2012, One Billion Rising is a festival that aims to end violence against women.
‘It conforms to no religion or region and transcends all boundaries to celebrate love and equality, explained Kamla Bhasin, the founder of Sangat, the Secretariat for OBR South Asia.
One of the posters around the venue that drew crowds in
‘All of us are invested in the cause. One Billion Rising isn’t just a day-long event. It is a global campaign that calls for an end to violence against women. It’s a collaborative effort. We’re all here for the cause we believe in,’ said Meenal, who works at Sangat.
It is named so, because as per a 2012 WHO Report, one in three women will face physical violence in their lifetime. Those are scary numbers, and it needs a gigantic movement like this to spread the message of ‘stop violence against women’. But to pull off an event like this needs strong financial backing and extensive planning, not to mention unprecedented efforts to bring the collaborating teams together.
‘Commitment to the issue is what brings us all together. We’re all from different organisations but what binds us is the friendship and like mindedness,’ explained Nastasia, Meenal’s colleague, hours before the event began.
The Indian tricolour in the backdrop was the apt setting for the impactful event that attempts to spread the message of equality through a multitude of equally impactful performances and acts that would unfold over the span of the next few hours. Song and dance performances, street plays, speeches and stories were part of the event’s agenda.
The first official on-stage act by the Delhi Drum Circle had the audience swaying to their beats. The accompanying melodious notes of the flute and the thumping of the drum had the audience tapping their foot even as they absorbed the message of equality through the lyrics.
Manmeet and Prabhleen explain One Billion Rising to the rapt audience
Manmeet and Prabhleen, the two effervescent anchors then formally introduced the event to the audience, explaining to us all what One Billion Rising is. Manmeet was thrilled about the audience turnout. She said, ‘Accidental crowds are the best as they are the target audience. A lot of people come to Connaught Place on Sundays and so we end up reaching out to larger numbers we wouldn’t have managed otherwise.’
Janaki Devi students performed to a mash-up of songs that included some inspiring lyrics like ‘Ankhein milayenge darr se‘ and through their dance imparted the message of freedom and equality to a wide applause among the women audience members.
It takes immense work to pull off an event like this. How do they select the groups and performers for the big day?
‘OBR is known as a major event in feminist circles. People come to us to be part of it. Our criteria of having them on board is simple—the messaging and the ideology should be in-line with ours,’ Krati, a team member of Plan India said.
Rachna Srivastava, ex-Chairperson of Child Welfare Committee was highly impressed by the performances. ‘We’re so ignorant. Our generation needs these kids, who are way ahead of us, to tell us how to right all the wrong in our world. Kudos to them!’ She said, referring to the act by Joint Women’s Programme that had kids reminding the audience of the constitutional rights that all genders deserve.
Participants of Azad Foundation, the parent company of Sakha Cabs, a women-drivers only cab service, who had the audience singing along as they performed to parodies to popular folk and film songs; CFAR that performed an interactive skit about media representation, cleanliness, domestic chores, violence against women and stories of the change they are already experiencing; and SMS that had promising young kids spreading awareness about gender equality and the sensitivity towards the LGBTQ+ community, entertained the audiences while also imparting significant messages.
‘We are immensely grateful to the LGBTQ community for their contribution to the human civilisation,’ one of the child performers insisted confidently in front of the crowd of thousands.
‘It is an important issue internationally. And it’s heartening to see the movement so strong in India,’ said Rose, a Canadian teacher, who was watching the performance with her mother. The mother-daughter duo was enjoying a leisurely stroll around in Connaught Circus when one of the posters drew them to the venue.
The vibe among the crowd is to be experienced and felt to understand how powerful and deep the retaliation against patriarchy runs.
Non-profit organisations like Jagori, Nine is Mine, Plan India, institutions like Miranda House, Lady Sri Ram College, AINSW, Breakthrough, Shivaji College, Mittika, and individuals like Vidya Shah (who sang the famous Faiz Ahmed Faiz song Hum Dekhenge among many other renditions and left the audience spell-bound), along with platforms like Your Voice were also part of the event.
The urge to come together and wage a collective war against patriarchy was evident in the resounding voices that responded to Kamla Bhasin’s call to fight and help bring the change. The Sun was just setting in the horizon but it heralded a new dawn for those who had just pledged to be part of the change.
As I walked away that evening, I knew the fight was already half won.
INCREDIBLE WOMEN OF INDIA 