Background

“Women hold up half the Sky” - But not in India 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. Shakti, Shakti a non partisan women's collective passionate about female leaders in politics has been fighting to get political parties to correct this imbalance. 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. The obstacle faced when holding largely male dominated political parties accountable for equal representation? The question - “Where are the women?”. The Brief: Drive greater representation of women in Indian politics, by influencing political parties to give more tickets to women to contest State level elections. The Objective: Make it impossible for political parties to turn a blind eye towards women’s representation.

Describe the cultural / social / political climate in your region and the significance of your campaign within this context

Who’s the Fairest (and most Effective) of them all? Indian Parliamentarians are oath bound to ensure a representative democracy, yet we are failing half our population. Increased women in Governance is not only an issue of fairness - they have been proven to increase both Living standards as well as Economic performance. 1.Global Gender Index reports have shown a correlation between the increased participation of women and the development in the areas of health, education, family care, social welfare, the environment. 2.Within India – in pockets with higher women’s representation, there is 12% decline in mother’s mortality, Economic performance rises by 2%, 22% higher chance of project completion, 20% improvement in gender parity Our campaign was to start in Bihar as Bihar geared up for State elections in 2019 India’s toughest state with high poverty, illiteracy, and gender disparity. At 8%, it had one of the lowest women’s ratio’s in parliament. To top it, it was Covid times where India was facing one of the most stringent lock downs. It was imperative that the Shakti movement which was lobbying political parties for greater representation, not lose the opportunity as state elections happen once every 5 years.

Describe the creative idea

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 strategy

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: 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. 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. The strategy included communication to spread the word, grassroots support from groups of NGO’s to galvanize change, and a clear call to action that

Describe the execution

We started with Bihar – the country’s poorest, most illiterate state with least representation of women in parliament. Be Seen Shakti collaborated with 140 organizations to simultaneously reach 126 elected representatives in just 2.5 hours.This was instrumental in mobilizing women leaders below state level to take selfies of themselves and their achievements and tag their community and political leaders, asking to be nominated. Young Bihari women started tagging their leaders demanding more candidates in the state elections. Be Heard As hundreds of selfies started to pour in it caught the media’s attention, who led by TOI 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 that is on-going state to state before state elections,ensuring that we don’t stop till we get our half!

Describe the results / impact

The groundswell that this campaign created could not be ignored – In Bihar fielded candidates went up, across political parties, to a highest ever 10% ( up from 8%) 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. This movement is ongoing, state by state elections we are clear - We will not stop until half is us, half is ours.