A new digital campaign by ActionAid, an NGO which works towards reducing poverty and promoting human rights, attempts to highlight the issue of gender equality, unpaid work- be it household work, in the farm or any other sector- and its impact on women and girls in India. What this first series does not address is the fact that poverty, unpaid and unrecognised labour - for men and women - continues to haunt India's development agenda.
The campaign called #ActEqual is however powerful in its attempt to profile gender inequality where it hurts most - young mothers and not so young working mothers and children.
The films address the issue of gender disparities, that women have to battle from an early age not just at work but also at home, by swapping gender roles in real life situations.
Watch the films here.
1. Share the work
Women fetching water from far off places every day is a common sight in several regions in India. What if men were to contribute equally in household chores? Would it then give women more freedom to join the labour force? And what about the need for institutional support for working women/women labourers through child care in the form of crèches, maternity leave, paternity leave, equal wages, access to institutional credit?
2. Farmers and Farm Workers
Even though women constitute 75% of India’s agricultural work force (farmers and farm workers), only 13% of them own land. This adversely impacts them in terms of accessing credit schemes, insurance schemes, compensation, etc.
3. No Child Should Skip School film
That male children are given preference over female ones in several regions of India till date is an unfortunate fact. This film highlights the need for gender equality from childhood and equal access to education across genders.