Femina and Bollywood take a stand against domestic violence with poem by Prasoon Joshi

Femina has collaborated with UN Women and NGOs such as Sneha Foundation, Hothur Foundation, International Foundation for Crime Prevention and Urja Foundation for a movement against domestic violence in the country.

 

Prasoon Joshi, CEO and chief creative officer, McCann Worldgroup India has penned a poem for the film which features Bollywood actors Shabana Azmi, Radhika Apte, Sonakshi Sinha, Aditi Rao Hydari and Taapsee Pannu. Through this poem, Femina is looking for a change where people actually act on domestic violence cases they hear about. 

 

Deepak Lamba, CEO, Worldwide Media, said, “In grave times like these, when staying home is advocated to be the safest, seldom do we realise that it may not be the ‘safest’ for some. These unprecedented times have elicited staggering, rampant cases of domestic violence. Femina, is synonymous with what Indian women stand for and against, believe in, and support. With the launch of this campaign we strongly condemn this heinous act. Alongside UN representatives and our NGO partners, we hope to make this campaign a people’s movement that leads the change we want to see around us.”

 

Nishtha Satyam, deputy country representative and officer in charge, UN Women, said, “In a world, where every third woman has experienced physical or sexual violence, mostly by an intimate partner, normalising abuse must stop. A life free from violence and the fear of violence is a pre-condition to well-being. World over, including in India, the Shadow Pandemic of domestic violence continues to deeply impact all women and girls. This pandemic must end. The change must begin from our homes and we all have a role to play. Its upon us to break this cycle of violence and prevent the generational transfer that often perpetuates abuse at home. UN Women stands together with Femina in the campaign #Actagainstabuse.”

 

McCann's Joshi added, “The pandemic changed a lot of things for us. As a nation and a society, as we dealt with the adversity, but in a larger sense we also saw so many positives in human spirit, in the environment, in collective action. Unfortunately , the  evil of domestic violence saw an upward spike through the pandemic with families confined at home .And what  was our response as a society ?It’s heart-breaking to say, but in most cases apathy. Apathy that leads us to ignore it, pretend it does not exist, condone it, and sometimes even justify it. And makes us, society at large, as much a party to the crime as the perpetrator. It’s important for communication around this issue to go beyond information dissemination. It is important to jolt society out of its collective apathy.”