Celebrating women power and speaking up against the humiliation of women in the city, students of Lady Shri Ram College organised a Night March on the occasion of Women’s Day. With an objective to protest against the unruly behaviour of men especially after dark, which makes the city more unsafe for women after sunset and hampers their mobility, students of LSR are all geared up to make themselves heard.
The March was open for all city students and young professionals, and began at 6 pm from the entry gates of Lady Shri Ram College and covered Amar Colony, National Park, Greater Kailash Part I. The march began after the opening ceremony, which included a performance by singer Kamla Bhasin and the screening of Gul Panag’s movie Dor. “We have placards displaying messages like ‘Slam the silence on violence’, ‘Raise your voice, put up a fight if you want to be safe at night’, ‘We make policy, we are not at anyone’s mercy’ etc,” says Reeti Mahobe, fest co-coordinator.
The march will be followed by the Women Development Fest titled ‘Udaan’ on March 11 and 12, which will include a panel discussion on women related issues along with other fun activities. “The theme of the fest is ‘Women in performing Arts. As the visual medium is one of the most persuasive forms of entertainment and also reaches out to the masses, we find evidences of gender biases that fester in society and mischaracterisations that are introduced into the society through these mediums. Therefore, the theme is to scrutinise the role of women in the public sphere,” says Jessica Rai, a Political Hons student, LSR.
The festival will start with Inter-college debate competitions addressing a multitude of issues concerning women. The show will also have dance performance by eminent dancers Pratibha Prahlad, Uma Sharma, Arushi Mudgal. “Through this fest, we will get to meet women who have made a mark for the country. The second day will have panel discussions by engaging eminent people from the fields of media, theatre and cinema in analysing, deliberating and commenting on the ‘Perception of women in film and television’ and questioning traditional images of women in this field. The discussion will have speakers including Lilette Dubey, Suhel Seth, Mini Mathur, Prahlad Kakkar, Sandhya Mridul, Sunetra Choudhury and Anjuli Shukla. It will surely be a learning journey for all of us,” adds Reeti.
Other interesting highlights of the show will be plays by Asmita Group based on female foeticide and a play by Lushin Dubey and Tom Alter titled Chalo Ek Baar Phir Se.
The festivities will end with informal activities like Slogan and magazine cover making competitions.