Re: When Bula di has her say...

[Guest guest]

When Bula di has her say.......

The campaign seems to have caught public attention to an extent where it has

become a topic for intellectually stimulating discussions on such forums and

this could be a success indicator for the campaign.

Adequate pre-testing for campaigns of such scale particularly when it comes from

a government body (to which media interest on the negative scale is anyways

high) is but a pre-requisite to the taking off of any such campaigns and WBSAPCS

was aware about it. Thus

while the messages being addressed in the campaign are essentially on the

knowledge gaps identified in the National Family Health Survey for West Bengal,

the creatives and the framing of the message has been pre-tested among various

segments of the population,

to the extent that even the name of Bula Di was Sheila Di as conceived initially

and had to go through a makeover after the response that was generated through

the pre-testing process.

Talking about conventional stereotypes being re-inforced and gender imbalances

further strengthened through such messages… to me this could be the most flawed

line of being critical about the campaign for at least in my life time of

summers (which may not be

much, I agree), I for the first time am seeing a campaign which is eye appealing

and at the same time has a lady not in the “Oye Bubbly” role but the “Bula”

version on Hoardings…..such a transition from the scantily clad version of

women trying to sell anything and everything on the earth…Something which people

who

believe in feminism might have just dreamt of till date.

For once we have this extremely plain looking lady talking sense , something

which all this while the media world thought women were incapable of doing.

About the particular creative, I would rather go by the interpretation of the

creative on these lines:

• That a lady is open about the issue of husband being unfaithful, is again

something that we don’t see much in our society, and to me that is an indication

of women verbalizing their pains, their issues, their needs and isn’t that an

indication of aberration from

the stereotype.

• That another lady is trying to enable her look into the health risks

associated to the situation is yet another indication of an empowered situation

of women (do I need to elaborate on how many consider health of women to be a

priority issue at all)

• Further that this campaign on HIV/AIDS through this particular message in

question is handling the issue of partner notification and vulnerability of

housewives (yet another neglected dimension in the HIV/AIDS framework all this

while) is probably the strongest indication of the campaign being gender

sensitive.

Having said all this, such discussions do often give new insights into something

that often goes unnoticed.

Dr A. Talukder

Asst. Professor

Medicine, Dept. CNMC

E-mail: <arka_talukdar@...>

[Guest guest]

Thank you Dr Talukdar for your timely focus,

Pity that kind of insight could not have been present when a social worker left

for a village in Madha Pradesh to explain to the women and mothers in particular

about the damage that child briding has on younger girl children.

So sensitive was the reality that apparently an affected male of the species cut

off her hands for being so indelicate as to interfere in a village custom that

has been acceptable for yonks (ages).( I am teaching strine to Indians in

Australia so bear with me readers)

There are some ideas that are very necessary to rise to the top of the

discussion list in India and gender inclusivity and empowerment is both high on

the agenda and likely to be fought tooth and nail by those whose lives are

sanctified by the status quo.

There are many things that WPSACS need commendation on and this is just another

one of them but woe betide those who push the boundaries. Marauding NGO's from

within and across the border will descend en masse to drag up the bogie man of

culture and tradition in an attempt to put everyone back into their proper

places again.

Just as an aside in my City of Melbourne in Australia there are some newer inner

city housing developments where kitchens are not encouraged and people are

instead encouraged to eat communally in a variety of food premises offering

meals at affordable prices and where people on the run can drop in and eat and

then move on to whatever activity is claiming their days and sometimes their

evenings as well.

Food premises require staff of course and a ready market for these staff are

young Indian students studying here and permitted under our strict visa laws to

work up to 20 hours per week to support themselves and service the loans taken

out by parents to fund their tertiary education abroad.

To get 20 hours of work that fits around university lectures many have found

advertisements for kitchen hands and our labour laws prescribe payments for

these hours worked.

I have just met two such indian students who worked for an indian

entrepreneur running such an establishment but unfortunately these boys came

from Kanpur in U.P. as as such they were given the jobs but never paid. The kind

of caste names they were called when they requested their wages reminded me that

even in non indian settings the deserving and undeserving citizens are still

silenced.

There will be a sequel of course here and I expect that the boys will get paid

but why is this culture of obeisance still tolerated even in off shore cultures?

It is this aspect of indian culture that still distresses me more than the chili

and the curry and the masala in the otherwise edible foods.

Geoffrey

e-mail: <gheaviside@...>