INDIA'S DAUGHTERS CAMPAIGN

Born out of the efforts of Prerna Girls School students to mobilize their communities, the India’s Daughters Campaign (IDC) is an annual girls’ empowerment campaign that aims to raise awareness around gender-based discrimination.

In 2011, a group of Prerna students, inspired and empowered by critical dialogues in schools, formed a social action group called Veerangana (woman warrior). They wanted to share what they were learning about equality and women’s rights with others, and so began conducting critical dialogues with women in their communities about child marriage, domestic violence, girls’ right to education, and a girl’s right to her own life. They also conducted a signature campaign in which they convinced community members, men and women alike, to sign a pledge against domestic violence. In addition to this campaign, the girls organized an awareness march; they marched through the streets with their teachers and peers, carrying banners and shouting slogans. During the march, they also performed a street play on paternal alcoholism and the resulting violence at home. The experience was extremely empowering for the girls and also sparked interest in the community. Because of its huge success and impact, the campaign became an annual event, and thus the India’s Daughters Campaign was born. Each year since, the IDC has grown exponentially and now includes participation not only from SHEF schools, but also from many government-run schools in and around Lucknow, and across the state of Uttar Pradesh.

At the core of critical feminist pedagogy is the use of critical dialogue to help girls and boys name their reality and examine the systemic discrimination and oppression faced by them and those around them. In this way, they become critically aware of their social and political reality and also gain a structural understanding of patriarchy and how it shapes their lives. They learn that patriarchy is a social construct, not a natural one, and that means that it can be changed. Through discussion with their teacher and peers, students become empowered and learn to act both individually and collectively as self-advocates, challenging unfair social structures. This becomes especially important in helping girls achieve better life outcomes and helping boys learn to be more egalitarian. The campaign aims to sensitize students, teachers, and their communities through direct participation in the classrooms; artwork, stories, and poetry; community engagement and dialogues with parents; signature campaigns in the community; and a protest march. The campaign also has a virtual component, in which students’ and teachers’ letters, stories, poems, and messages are posted online, as is participation from other organizations.

Over the years, the campaign has grown exponentially. In its inception year 2012, the IDC managed to reach out to over 10,000 community members and 3100 students. In the 2019 and latest iteration of the campaign, we reached 1,160,000 community members and 232,000 students, and collaborated with government representatives, civil society, faith leaders and nonprofits in Uttar Pradesh (India) to put forward a united front against child marriage and violence against women. The IDC 2020 was conducted entirely online as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.