The South Asian Women in Media (SAWM) is a network of women journalists based in each country of the region — that is, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka. WE STAND FOR freedom of speech and expression, the fair and equal representation of women in the media, as well as equal opportunity for women in the media. Our aim is two-fold: We want to deepen our network inside our countries so as expose each other to the wide variety of stories around us as well as promote best practices in journalism; We also want to create a digital platform that will showcase our work as well as our interests and ideas across all the countries of South Asia. We believe that the right to speak freely goes hand-in-hand with the responsibility to dissent, and yet across our region, censorship and crackdowns and plain fear are being used by powerful governments to prevent the story from coming out. In these circumstances, a network of journalists — of women journalists — who demonstrate the power of cross-border networking in standing up to these values of a free and responsible media, is increasingly important.

Among these efforts to promote both national and cross-border journalism — which includes the provision of grants to women journalists to pursue their stories and arrange field visit — is a highly valued collaboration with UNICEF, which was launched in 2017. The theme of the inaugural SAWM India-UNICEF India Media Initiative was “Voices of Adolescents.” Eleven women journalists from English and regional media across the country wrote and reported untold stories of adolescent girls and boys and presented them to over 25 million readers and viewers in their respective publications.

For the second edition in 2018, SAWM India collaborated with UNICEF’s Water, Sanitation & Hygiene Initiative (WASH), on the theme “Gender and Sanitation.” This year, our funders supported 14 journalists. SAWM India makes it a point to make the selection of these journalists diverse and inclusive. Which means that journalists from big media organisations like Times of India, Indian Express, The Hindu, Prabhat Khabar, PTI, Mirror Now, along with journalists from smaller regional language newspapers and TV, as well as independent journalists participated in this exercise.

The program enabled the reporters to travel to other states to report their stories, an opportunity often not offered by media organisations. They visited villages and towns where sanitation projects were making an impact on the lives of young girls and women. The participants were also encouraged to travel on their own.

Providing resource and other support for quality journalism is important to SAWM. As in the first year, this year too we held a pre-departure briefing. It was attended by experts in sanitation, from UNICEF as well as those seconded to the government, as well as veteran journalists who have written on gender and sanitation issues. A report on the pre-departure briefing features in this report.

The program greatly values social media posts from the field, sent by participant journalists. These capture the interface of women journalists with women in villages or slums and the impressions they make on each other. In a sense, these are “stories behind the stories,” and need to be recorded as such.

School begins early for Pompy Biswas, Nitraban Hazarika and Krittika Das as they don the hats of ‘swachh sevaks’ to check whether the water tank has been filled, hand washing area cleaned and soaps put in place.

The three students of Azara Keotpara Lower Primary School, along with their fellow mates, have set an example in Kamrup (Metro) district, near here, by taking upon themselves the responsibility of maintaining hygiene and keeping the environment clean, not just around classrooms but homes too.

At Sajjanpara Lower Primary School, nearby, children keep a check on their parents and relatives too. They take time out to impart lessons on cleanliness to their neighbours and other members of the community.

The Assam chapter of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, along with UNICEF, has piloted the cleanliness drive to ensure less absenteeism in schools, said Rajib Dutta, the project’s engineer for Kamrup (Metro) district.

“It is the schoolchildren who have become role models for the community at large by moving beyond the confines of the campus to take their cleanliness initiatives to their family and the extended community,” he said.

A UNICEF report had pointed out that there was consistent evidence that hand washing with soap at critical times – before eating, while preparing food and after using the toilet – can reduce diarrhoea risk by about 45 per cent, Dutta added.

Likumoni Das, a Class III student of Azatpara school, said they were keen on passing the knowledge they have acquired to their parents and relatives.

“After learning the basic rules of hand washing, we found out that our parents did not follow the methods. We have now taught them how to maintain hygiene,” she said.

The headmaster of her school, Kamal Chandra Goswami, said he has built separate toilets and hand-washing facilities for boys and girls.

“I am happy to see that students have become torch-bearers of the cleanliness drive here,” he stated.

The parents, too, have joined the initiative by donating soap cakes to the school.

“We are learning something new every day from our children. These hygiene practices have become a part of our daily routine,” Amila Das, a mother and member of School Management Committee, said.

Echoing similar sentiments, Subhan Chandra Bodo, the headmaster of Sajjanpara LP School, said it was the children who convinced their parents to install water filters at home.

“As part of the government and the UNICEF initiative, children have not just learnt about keeping themselves clean, they have also inspired parents and relative to build toilets and install water filters at home,” he added.

Sweta Patnaik, the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) specialist of UNICEF, said philanthropists, corporate houses, civic and faith organizations in Assam have been requested to join the drive to extend its reach to every nook and corner of the state.

“We have taken initiatives to mainstream ‘WASH in School’ programme through trainings of teachers and headmasters and orientation of School Management Committees members,” she said, adding that a “lot more” had to be done to ensure that maximum number of people benefit from the drive.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Students of Sajjanpara primary school are washing their hands in a group with a beautiful song before having their mid-day meal.

source: Business Standard

What could be the best place to go on Children’s Day? School, of course. And journalists who are participating in the SAWM Unicef Media Initiative, 2018, did exactly that. Today, along with Durba Ghosh (PTI, Guwahati) and Priyanka Tupe(Sakal, Pune), I visited two lower primary schools in Keotpara and Sajjanpur in Assam.

We met a bunch of boisterous children, full of life and energy. As we watched their assembly lines, physical training exercises, song-and-dance performances, it made me nostalgic for my school days. But these children are smarter. Most of them have already made up their minds on what they want to do in the future. To our surprise, this co-ed lower primary school has more girls than boys, and there’s no drop-out despite the economic distress their families face.

Our next stop was Sajjanpur Primary school. We found that the habit of hand-washing has improved their hygiene. Further, these children motivated their families to wash hands. How they influenced their parents to construct toilets at home came to us as an eyeopener on children’s role as change-makers. The students of this school mostly comprised of tribal kids from poverty-stricken families. Yet, no child has dropped out of school, and the founder president is proud of the fact. The school is situated in the arm of a hill. The scenic beauty is something to witness too. –  Anwesha Banerjee, Ei Somoy (Bengali Daily), Kolkata

The usual never interests me. I knew I would not find the elusive, colorful Palash flower at this of the year in Purulia but I still hoped to find that one fresh twist in the routine, mundane sanitation, gender stories that would make me say that not only the Palash flowers bloom here but so do the Palash flower girls and the Palash women, who are painting this district in the most vivid empowering colors. The colors that display their innermost urge to break free and chart their own route.

And just as I thought, I found that much-sought-after twist in Purulia women’s will to think out of the box, do something different from others, generate income not just for oneself but for their fellow sisters, mates in the self-help groups and most importantly not make a big deal about it. And it is not just in building toilets or creating awareness about using sanitary napkins but zeroing in on a number of other avenues, which can be eye-openers for women not only in other districts of West Bengal but other states as well.

Schoolgirls, barely 12-15 years seemed well rehearsed about sanitary napkins and their usage but what was not well practiced was their confidence in dealing with outsiders, especially the media. The Kanyashree clubs are in different forms in all other states but what outshone and was different amongst these Kanyashree girls from Purulia was their leadership qualities, their ability to tackle every tricky question with an unusual confidence that belied their age. Kanyashree clubs seem to be nurturing women leaders of tomorrow.

Women masons build toilets now, earning a paltry Rs 2,200 now. Their earnings are small but what is big for them is their family’s acceptance that no work is hard enough for women to get bogged down.

Admitting that the work is hard and difficult, mason Shikha Rani Mahato has no reasons to quit. She wants to pursue it as long as she can, be it extreme heat or chilling cold. She wants to keep building – not just toilets but her own house and her own dreams, which would never ever be trampled upon.

Not just April-May, I found Palash do bloom here in every season. Nothing to pull back Palash, power and Purulia women.

For UNICEF India – SAWM India Media Initative on Gender & Sanitation

She had to quit school five years ago when she was in Class VI to help the family deal with medical expenses of her ailing mother.

Seboti Pahariya has to wait till January to rejoin school. The 17-year-old has waited five years already.

Its the middle of the school session in Assam and Seboti will join Class VII. She had to quit school five years ago when she was in Class VI to help the family deal with medical expenses of her ailing mother.

Born and raised in Amguri, 110 km from Dibrugarh, she is from a family of tea garden workers. A bindi sparkling on her forehead, red kurta with jeans and a yellow dupatta thrown casually around her neck, she made her intentions clear: “I want to study and then I want to teach.”

In 2015, her mother passed away after a long battle with mental illness that Seboti is unable to name. Soon after, her father passed away of diarrhoea.

The youngest of five siblings, she shared the responsibility of running the household with her brother, Maniram Pahariya (22) and sister-in-law Mira. Her older sisters are married and have moved out.

Seboti wakes up by 6 am, helps out with household chores, reaches the tea estate by 8 am and plucks leaves till 5 pm. She earns Rs 800 every week and hands that to her brother.

But in February this year, she joined the anganwadi in Amguri block and began interacting with others her age. She learnt about nutrition and hygiene. During weekly sessions, she came in contact with the NGO Nava Udit Samaj that works with the district administration in the block. “I learnt for the first time that as a child I have rights. I learnt about the importance of education,” she said. Her family always saw education from the expense point-of-view and did not see the value in educating the girls, Seboti said.

Her parents were unlettered and her brother is the most educated in the house, having finished Class XII.

“The subject of my marriage was brought up but with the help of the anganwari workers I was able to convince my brother to hold it off,” she said.

NGOs point to varying statistics about the declining number of child marriages in tea gardens. Reducing child marriage and teen pregnancy forms a key part of UNICEF’s adolescent project in the district.

At the anganwadi centre every Saturday, Seboti has recently undergone “folklore” training.

Young adults in the block were taught lessons of social importance through songs and dance in their own language and then encouraged to create their own. So while some penned songs about drug de-addiction and child marriage, Seboti wrote about what she missed most — school — in the Chhadri dialect spoken by tea garden workers of Assam.

At a recent talent show at the centre, she performed this song. “My friend’s father, who does not allow her to go to school, said he will allow her after he heard my song,” she said, her pride evident.

She writes about things too, her mother’s illness, her future, her village. The farthest she has been from her house, is the district centre at Sibsagar, about 30 km from home.

“One of the main reasons girls drop out of schools is the violence at home,” she said. “There was violence at home as well when my brother used to drink but after attending sessions at the anganwari I came back and told him about the affects of alcohol and how it was affecting our household.”

The Deputy Commissioner, Sivasagar, collaborated with UNICEF to conceptualise and implement the project on adolescent empowerment.

The overall goal of this project is to improve the lives of adolescents in five blocks of Sivasagar by increasing the autonomy that adolescent boys and girls have over decisions affecting their lives.

Seboti, and 24 other girls are part of this project and are finding their feet as they learn more about their bodies and their environment. In her own words, “I was fearful and did not understand my desires or a life other than that at home. I am now more confident, and I try and encourage those who come in contact with me to speak up as well.”

Till she rejoins school, Seboti will continue to write for Mukto Aakaash (an NGO-run adolescent newspaper).

Source: indianexpress.com