Youth speak up to break the cycle of violence

[1]

The young brigade has taken matters in their hands. “Silence is not me!” That’s the fearless adage that the youth-led, youth-focused campaign Must Bol follows as it talks of gender-based violence in the language of the Gen Next.

Through various forms of creative visual arts — films, posters and placards, and social media, the volunteer-led initiative looks at issues by engaging the youth themselves.
Campaigner Abhinandan Jain, 20, like many of his friends, shares that he has faced abuse in different forms. But what hurt him more was the way onlookers react to the situation, he says.
“They would simply turn a blind eye or flee the scene. Often, they end up blaming the victim, if she is a girl, claiming she invited the trouble, and they would definitely question the way she is dressed,” he says. And all Abhinandan could do was hold fiery discussions with his friends at Kirori Mal College over chai.
But their voice got a platform when he made it to the 22-member core team of Must Bol. Here, Abhinandan is currently working on Bystander Intervention. “We reach out to common people and explain to them how, instead of being mere spectators, they can actually react and be of help to the victim and prevent the situation from getting ugly,” he says.
Abhinandan’s friend Shubham is addressing the struggles of the youth with sexual orientation. He conducts workshops on gender sensitisation. On the same theme, he recently conducted programs with MCD schools. “We are trying to address violence in different forms. Like the issue of control within a relationship is a form of violence. It is something that many young people don’t discuss openly. We are trying to offer them a platform here with the group,” says the 20-year-old DU student. While social media is the new hang out space for diverse young people, the experimental campaign also aims to explore the power of social media for social change.
Software engineer Saumya Tejas, 25, another core group campaigner is connected to the 32,000 Facebook members of Must Bol and is honing her filmmaking skills after quitting her job.
“We get to do a lot of creative work here. Short films are an interesting medium, which everyone is hooked on to. So, a few-minute movie can deliver the message beautifully and can be shared through YouTube or Facebook,” she says.
Further explaining the functioning, Saumya says that along with online campaign, another aspect of the organisation is offline, groundwork, where they try and generate discussions with common people at various random, but prominent places of the city. “We try and tell them that the way the boys and girls are brought up at home in a way starts the cycle of violence,” she says.
The facilitator of the campaign, Manak Mathiayani, 29, says, “Today’s generation is not going to take anything lying down. We know how to make our voices heard. And thankfully, we have new-age mediums to do that,” he says.
The Must Bol campaign has been facilitated by Commutiny the Youth Collective, an collective of organisations that nurtures youth leadership for social change and is advocating for democratic and self governed spaces for young people. The campaign encourages youngsters to come forward and share their inspiring stories and struggles on the social media forums.