Among the scattered personal photo-essays on Instagram, there’s a picture of a girl in her early 20s. Her hair’s pulled to the side and she’s smiling tightly, a golden earring dangling from her ear lobe. Under the photo, a long caption details her trip from the market back home, when a group of men in a car tried to abduct her. “Something kicked in and I started shouting. Since, this was a market place I thought someone would notice and come help me but people were just gawking at the on-goings…(sic)” it reads. This stray story is unnerving; part of a larger photo-series narrating incidents of sexual harassment on KrantiKali’s feed.
KrantiKali was founded in April 2016 by Rachel Bali, a 23-year-old activist who was first introduced to gender studies during her Anthropology course in St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai. Inspired by the Indian gender rights movement, Ms Bali started actively participating in campaigns in college, analysing where it was lacking in effectiveness. Wanting to do her bit in creating a dialogue about gender and identity, Ms Bali founded KrantiKali, a social startup that aims to bring about a “gender revolution.”
The name itself is hefty, one that invoked the awe-inspiring Indian goddess with promises of a revolution, a complete change of state. The task KrantiKali has taken upon itself is no light matter either. Its endeavours include working towards gender sensitisation, sex education and skill development, all the while fighting to popularise an accurate portrait of feminism; one that is hopefully nuanced and not sullied by half-baked assumptions and radical opinions.
With the rising popularity of the photo-essay concept ( à la Humans of New York), portraits accompanied by real stories have become the go-to method of visual storytelling. The stories are humbling and heart-warming, letting you empathise with a person you probably wouldn’t have ever met in real life. KrantiKali’s Liminal Lens series, the Instagram project started by Bali last month, turns this idea on its head, using real stories to create conversations around topics usually ignored. Five stories into the series, the viewer is privy to terrifying incidents of assault and harassment. It’s unsettling to read but the magnitude hits home when you realise that most Indian women have been through similar experiences, some more times than they can count, each time leaving you feeling as vulnerable and violated as the first. By openly narrating these stories, KrantiKali is empowering women to start their own dialogue, to demand that people sit up and notice that women’s safety goes beyond the moral policing, political jargon and reactionary policies.
Despite being relatively new, with few posts, this initiative is attracting a lot of attention, with people clamouring to share their own stories and prompting the creators to bring in more LGBT-inclusive stories to create a well-rounded, intersectional spoke piece.
“We are just starting” Rachel laughs, “there are so many other projects lined up.” Together with partners Mridu Tikku and Akshita Mathur, development consultant Krishna Wagh and a team of four volunteers, Ms Bali is part of tight ship that is working to explore and draw attention to themes like transgender rights, reproductive rights, and sexuality and harassment so the public can better understand how the social construction of gender has such far-reaching effects. Once the series is completed on social media, they also plan on having a physical exhibition to make these ideas and discussions more accessible.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg though. “Gender equality and equity need to go hand in hand,” says Ms Bali. “While we are working to create a dialogue, we are also focusing on what the next step should be.”
For that reason, Ms Bali and her team decided to carry forward the Say No Accept No (SNAN) campaign that she had started in 2014 for a college project. An online and offline venture, SNAN aims to raise awareness of gender violence among the youth by creating cells in schools, colleges and corporations to discuss gender sensitisation, law awareness, consent and cyber harassment. SNAN also ensures that the team gets hands-on experience, allowing it to stay dynamic about its nature and not just be limited to an online presence. The campaign is being re-launched this year under KrantiKali.
Bali understands that the image wrongfully associated with feminism and gender rights will be hard to shake off. “It can only start to get better with exposure,” she says. “Gender rights should be integrated into the education system. Mainstreaming the issue is important. The government needs to get involved.” While it may take time, KrantiKali is on the right path and by proactively trying to transcend class and gender restrictions, it’s all set to be a force to be reckoned with.
Email: Krantikaliblogs @gmail.com; Instagram, Twitter: @krantikali
The author is a freelance writer
