On the occasion of International Women’s Day theming Better the balance, better the world, Phia Foundation hosted an event on 6th March 2019 – “Kar Mumkin – A cohesive movement to reimagine a gender equal society” at Dayal Paradise. The main agenda was to bring like-minded individuals, organizations, corporates together to collectively work towards the common cause of gender equality.
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The event started with a small video clip upon issues such as defined gender roles, unequal parenting, lack of freedom to choose and such lacunae that were pointers to gender disparity in society.
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This was followed up by a small poem recital (‘Naam’) by Ms. Swati who also acted as an anchor for the event. This set the tone for the event and the need for such events, activities, efforts and alliances.
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After this, Mr. Ramkumar, whose organisation has been working on several issues include caste and gender disparity, violence against women, said a few words. He welcomed everyone and pointed to the necessity to move forward.
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Next, Mr. Prashant Aanchal, State Manager, PHIA Foundation took to the stage and provided a brief background of the organisation. He said that PACS, later re-christened PHIA Foundation is working in 33 districts of the state. He said that the areas they were working in were extremely backward and marginalised locations and there was a need to spread the work in other locations and districts too and thus the urge to ‘co-create’.
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Mr. Ranjan also from PHIA Foundation Delhi office then enriched the discussion with his thoughts. He said that while patriarchy is relatively all pervasive, it is not unanimous with masculinity. Thus freedom of choice and action in both genders is important. He pointed out and elucidated on a few focus areas that they had highlighted for this initiative.
This was followed by a Panel Discussion, which was anchored by Mr. Ranjan Bhattacharjee from PHIA Foundation. It largely took the form of an interactive and interesting Question/Answer session.
The panel discussion was followed by a Question Answer Session with the audience. Various pertinent points around the issue were brought up at this stage.
The panel discussion and question answer session was followed by a small clip on ‘Smart Betiyan’, presented by Ms. Shivani & Ms. Stuti from PHIA Foundation. These girls use the internet and smartphones (often aided through the Internet Sathi program) and are exposed to various activities that enable them to find their calling and their sense of empowerment, rising above gender barriers & stereotypes.
The Smart Betiyan session was followed bya couple of extremely poignant recitals by Ms.Aisha Ayub, a recognised Urdu poet.
The session drew to a close with felicitation to the Smart Betiyan and a vote of thanks by Mr. Prashant.
