The 2nd Women of India leadership Summit is back with a new theme and speakers from all walks of life. Deebashree Mohanty speaks with co-founder Divya Chandra to know more
If you thought a women’s leadership summit in India will not have any male takers, think again. In its second outing, the WIlS co-founder Divya Chandra says she won’t be surprised if more men turn up for the sessions than the fairer sex. “We were bombarded with emails from male participants last year saying ‘why do you leave us out, create sessions for us too’. So we have 6 sessions especially for men like re- defining masculinity, consent culture conscious parenting, intimacy and more. I am looking forward to this new level of participation, as co- creator of the summit what could be more rewarding!,” Chandra tells you.
The 2nd WIlS is scheduled to be held in the Capital from September 18 -20, 2014 at the India Islamic Centre. The sessions this time round are comprehensive and exciting at the same time. “One of the biggest things that has influenced the sessions this time is the lack of concrete action steps taken by the government in ensuring safety for women. We have no choice but to continue on as a citizens’ movement. So our focus is to dig our feet even more and look deeper at why these alarming statistics continue and how‘we the people’ through our own efforts, find long -term solutions. So we have three sessions addressing this. We have NDTV’s Vishnu Som talking to one the biggest Kalim experts in the country Ashwin Mohan on defeating rape culture, how to address boundary violations, sexual harassment at home or work and teaching young people how to protect themselves,” Chandra reveals some of the plans for the summit.
A popular actress herself, she feels that art and entertainment can influence social behaviour but we as a society have been missing this point since the 90s. “The problem started when we stopped making movies like Arth and Ardhsatya...We seem to have this disconnect — on one hand there is this very clear code of conduct, dress and behaviour that women are expected to follow, based on traditional notions of respect. And then you have women in films being objectified in item numbers and being teased and harassed as a form of ideal courtship. And you have the censor board editing kissing and sex scenes from cable tv while obscene pelvic thrusting and wet saree dance sequences are applauded for being hits and considered very much part of our “auratmerimaa” culture. Such hypocrisy!,” Chandra says.
For her, objectification of women in films and on TV shows is the root cause of problems. “Most Indians from your driver to grandmother are not reading Munshi Premchand or Arundhati Roy on weekends; they are watching the latest movie or soap. We are a Bollywood /Kyunki Saas Bhi Bahu Thhi type serials obsessed nation. Till we continue to support this kind of entertainment,” she says.
This and many more topics will be discussed at the sessions this year and the speakers include eminent personalities from all walks of life. “It takes us 11 months to plan the event because our selection process is so exacting. We decide what our theme and sessions are and then look for the person best suited to share their wisdom on the subject,” Chandra says.