Why not for a moment we tweak Mao Zedong’s words “Women hold up half the sky” to read, “Women hold up more than half the Kerala sky”? That will make many sit up and ask, “So?” Yet others may choose not to receive those words. But, that is a reality that has got blurred in the overly politicised Kerala society leaving us with the question, “Where are Kerala’s women?”
Certain questions are perennially waiting to be answered, and this happens to be one such. Kerala is at once the news-saturated and the news-hungry state, but there are major gaps waiting to be filled and one such definitely is of those who hold “more than half the Kerala sky”.
Screenshot of the website www.womenpoint.in
“Mainstream media rarely adopts a gender-friendly approach. Nor are the concerns of women high in the priority list. Most often negative stories receive attention and the positive, forward-looking stories are given the go-bye or missed. There is need to strike a balance,” says R Parvathi Devi, activist-journalist, who together with Suneetha Balakrishnan, writer-translator, and Suja Susan George, Director, Malayalam Mission and cultural activist, are some of the faces behind the website www.womenpoint.in to be launched this month.
‘Debate, Discussion, Friendship – A Space for Women’ is the tagline for this digital space. Planned as a bi-lingual site, its takes the baby steps in Malayalam, and in good time, the English option will be activated, thus reaching out to a broad spectrum of users.
Comprehensive network
If you are a woman and have a point of view, or are a writer, or you need information on access to legal counsel, this is just what the doctor ordered. This site will play the facilitator’s role, be equipped to provide the information, and network for you. A full-fledged website with news, resource information, documentation on women in Kerala, the macro and micro on issues that need not necessarily be bracketed as ‘women’s issues’ holds out the promise of garnering women as a demography transcending ideology, caste, class and other possible categories that the human can be slotted.
The differentiator here is that coping strategies, access to information, articulating the power in the woman, and providing linkages happen without much ado.
The names for sections leave nothing hazy: Round Table, Viewpoint, Complaint Box and the News Page will be focal points which will draw the user. A click of the mouse takes you to Helpline, Short Stay Home, Organisations, Welfare Organisations, Hostels, Rescue Shelters, and Information on Rights, to name a few. Navigating through the site reveals that every area of human interest finds a space here.
Documentation is not Kerala’s strong point. This might seem a sweeping statement but that is the unfortunate reality, in every field of activity, which cries out for attention on this count. According to Parvathi, this pitfall is something that the site proposes to take care of in the long run, because the prime thrust is to make the site an “inclusive, comprehensive, one-stop shop for news, views, information on women, initially from Kerala, and then expand its reach to rest of the country”.
Access to audio-video clippings on matters relevant to a specific context/topic will be accessible here. “The archive we propose to build will go beyond contributions made to the site. Any woman who has bylines to her credit can have a space dedicated for all her articles providing facility to access and will be a click away for the reader,” she adds, reiterating the extent of inclusivity that underlies this venture. A platform for women seeking legal awareness, ventilation and redressal of grievances, or common facilities like women’s hostels that are available at various locations are some of the features incorporated.
The discussion forum will foster an openness to all shades of views and subject experts will handle specific topics leaving it open for opinions and debate. For a moment, look at the news page – vying for the eyeballs are reports and updates on the latest cases of violence against women, the political turmoil in Tamil Nadu and a researched article on how women in Kerala remain hidden as housewives unable to shed that mantle!
The desire that the mainstream use this as a resource point and the clear thinking is evident.
That this is a site for women as a constituency and will not carry any hint of political leanings is one definite way of garnering woman power. In a state where fragmentation takes place because the political tint raises its head in every issue, the thrust of www.womenpoint.in is headed in a positive direction.
