Give GIRLS in India a CHANCE at life

Dear Donors,

Greetings!

When we look around ourselves especially living in India, chances are we see more men than women. Not only are there fewer women present around us, their movement in severely restricted by the time of the day. As night falls, so does the number of women in public spaces. 

With your support to our programme, Breakthrough has been successfully implementing its intervention on Gender Biased Sex Selection (GBSS) across four districts in Haryana, India and tackling the issue of ‘missing women’.

Who and where are these missing women?

In India, there are only 914 girls for every 1000 boys. A normal ratio would be much closer to even. Some of the country’s most economically progressive areas have some of the worst child sex ratios. In the northern state of Haryana in India, the sex ratio is much worse with just 834 girls for every 1000 boys.  

Breakthrough strongly believes that more women in the world would make it a better place for women, and it’s time to recognise their value. With our ongoing work in Haryana on the issue of GBSS, we aim towards demonstrating the value that girls and women bring to their communities.

With this in mind, Breakthrough launched Mission Hazaar (Hazaar is 1000 in Hindi). With Mission Hazaar we’re making the women around us – in our homes, schools, colleges, market places, streets, and public places – visible. We made it our responsibility to respond to the situation and brought out how important it was that each of us recognises the missing women in our lives.

Our work in Haryana through Mission Hazaar was highlighted by the fact that ‘fewer girls in a society means fewer girls in public places. This makes them appear more unsafe, which further reduces the mobility of girls and women’.

How our campaign ran and created connections on-ground and online?

Through a walkathon, youth festivals and a bike rally organised by Breakthrough as a part of the Mission Hazaar campaign, we clearly saw how effectively community mobilisation, media, technology and culture can come together to encourage people to speak out against gender-based discrimination.

1. Walkathon (1500 people, 13 schools, 1 college and 22 social organisations): Our campaign was flagged off with a ‘walkathon’ wherewe walked, talked, tweeted, interviewed community members and took pictures and videos of more than 1000 girls who thronged the streets of Sonepat (Haryana) demanding their rights of mobility and education. Walking a two kilometre stretch shouting slogans for their rights and entitlements, young school girls took a stand and raised their voices in front of their families, community members and village leaders. Flagging off the walkathon was the first woman from Haryana to climb the Mt. Everest, Ms. Mamta Sauda who is seen as a role model across the state bringing out how she too could have been a missing woman had her family not seen the value of girl children.

2. Youth festivals in colleges across our 4 intervention districts: With a combined attendance of nearly 5000 people, the students attending the festivals found themselves challenging gender norms and stereotypes every minute. Our festivals were thronged by enthusiastic students who participated through:           

• Street theatre - students stepped up and responded to a father who refused his daughter the same freedom and mobility he gave his son.
• Magic shows - and analogies that demonstrated how society suppresses the very presence of girls and women. 
• Various competitions - where boys performed tasks typically seen as a 'woman's job'.
• The nagada performance - a dance form native to Haryana whose very performance shatters gender stereotypes.
• IVRS (Interactive Voice Response System) - by calling a number and sharing their own stories and experiences of gender-based discrimination.
• Video games - by playing the Mission Hazaar game and trying to find the missing women on each level. The Mission Hazaar game takes you through five public spaces in the five Indian states with the lowest child sex ratio. The mission is to find all the missing women in each level. As darkness falls, it becomes more and more difficult to see women in public spaces.

3. Breakthrough will be hosting a Mission Hazaar Bike Rally in partnership with FreeSouls Riders on 22nd February, 2015 from Delhi to Rohtak (Haryana) where men and women bikers are invited to join us and support our cause of ending Gender Biased Sex Selection by breaking gender stereotypes and encouraging and celebrating mobility for all.

4. Two PSAs (Public Service Advertisements) from Breakthrough’s Mission Hazaar campaign have been included in the roll out of a campaign by the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWCD), Government of India. An audio-visual package was disseminated across 100 districts which have very low child sex ratio. Apart from the PSAs, our communication protocol, messages and pictures are being used by the MoWCD. Our collaboration with the Government has helped our campaign reach scale and wider reach throughout the country. You can watch the videos here and here.

With Mission Hazaar we're bringing to light the reasons behind the undervaluing of girls, the causes of gender-based discrimination, and the absence of women around us. We want to highlight the power each of us have within us to end gender based discrimination; to build communities in which everyone can thrive; and to make public spaces safe for everyone.

Let’s celebrate the birth of girl children and value the women in our lives. Please consider continuing to support us in giving girls in India a chance at life and bringing attention to the missing women around us. Remember, more women in the world makes it a better place for women.

Any contribution from £5 to £50will go directly to support our work in Haryana towards ending gender based discrimination and violence by conducting more such campaigns, trainings and community mobilisation initiatives.

Thank you and visit us at www.breakthrough.tv

Links:

• Mission Hazaar (1000)- Search for India's missing women
• Mission Hazaar game