Why is this work relevant for PR?

Change at a grand scale – one that questions the established order and inspires action – is impossible without the continued support of the people and constant vigilance by the press. Therefore, when it came to questioning the gender skew in Indian Parliament it was clear that it would take a sustained campaign activated at a grassroot level amplified by the press to reach the corridors of parliament and spur the conversation of women’s represent in the world’s largest democracy.

Background

The world’s largest Democracy, India, is failing to represent 50% of its population - Only less than 10% of its lawmakers in Parliament are women. Women form over 50% grassroots workers and leaders below state level, working tirelessly in the field, but are overlooked when it comes to getting tickets to contest elections. Shakti, a women’s collective, is fighting to get political parties to correct this imbalance. The obstacle faced when holding largely male dominated political parties accountable for equal representation? The question - “Where are the women?”. The Brief: Help Shakti drive greater representation of women in Indian politics, by launching an integrated campaign that will influence political parties to give more tickets to women to contest State level elections. The Challenge: Make it impossible for political parties to turn a blind eye towards women’s representation, by creating a movement for change.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

From faceless to “In-your-Face” In order to make it impossible for politicians to turn a blind eye, towards the able and available women leaders at grassroots, level - Shakti partnered with The Times of India, India’s premier daily, to create a movement called - The Nominate-Me Selfie. We took a simple, accessible, universal phenomenon - the SELFIE, and turned it into a CV for women’s grassroots leaders. We teamed up with NGO’s at grassroots levels who spread the word and urged women leaders to send their Selfie-CV’s to their local leader in parliament, asking to be nominated. Our screens , newspapers and public consciousness became flooded with the faces of women leaders , and their significant development achievements, igniting a grassroots women’s movement, that is shaking the pillars of Indian power centers.

Describe the PR strategy (30% of vote)

Flip the Perception,Flip the Camera. Women working hard in the trenches of the political movement are invisible in terms of their presence and achievements. This systemic unfairness has stopped them from asking for their due. Therefore, our strategy was to flip what is considered the norm. Flip the Bias: From homemakers to community leaders. Women make excellent leaders because they understand what homes and communities really need. Flip the Narrative: From the fiction of women can’t lead and are not available to the facts of their presence and achievements, and finally asking for their due with a simple message "Nominate me!" Primary Audience Parliamentarians, a majority of whom are male and are instrumental in giving tickets to female candidates. Secondary Audience:The women of India – As victims of patriarchy for so long, they are looking for ways to bring sustainable change to society by being heard and given their due.

Describe the PR execution (20% of vote)

We started with Bihar the country’s poorest, most illiterate state with least representation of women in parliament. Be Seen We mobilized women leaders below state level to take selfies of themselves and their achievements and tag their community and political leaders, asking to be nominated. Shakti collaborated with 140 organizations to simultaneously reach 126 elected representatives in just 2.5 hours. Young Bihari women started tagging their leaders demanding more candidates in the state elections. Be Heard Hundreds of selfies started to pour in it caught the media’s attention, who amplified a state phenomenon into a national issue. Parallelly, we launched a film for parliamentarians questioning the 1:10 gender skew in state assemblies. Be Relentless This is not a flash in the pan – but a movement,on-going TV debates,articles in press and widespread discussion around impact of more women in parliament made representation front page news for the first time ever!

List the results (30% of vote)

The groundswell that this campaign created could not be ignored – In Bihar fielded candidates went up, across political parties, to a highest ever 8% to 10%. The ruling party gave an unprecedented 19% of tickets to women We then rolled out the movement everywhere a new election would come up. Bengal state elections saw ruling party women candidates up to a never before seen 17%. With state level involvement led by women – voter turnout has risen faster and has been higher than men’s turnout for state elections.

Please tell us about the social behaviour that inspired the work

Selfies are an universal phenomenon, where people are now for the first time in history turning their gaze towards their own selves in disproportionately high numbers. We thought this phenomenon could be leveraged to galvanize women’s grassroots leaders to ask for their due. Only when women believe they deserve to lead, will we see true change taking place, and that is why our campaign centered around the flipping of the camera and the narrative as the central idea.