“Women hold up half the Sky” - But not in India

The world’s largest Democracy, India, is failing to represent 50% of its population - Only 14% of its lawmakers in Parliament are women. (global average 24.5%).

Women form over 50% grassroots workers and leaders below state level, working tirelessly in the field, but are overlooked when it comes to getting tickets to contest elections. Shakti, a women’s collective, is fighting to get political parties to correct this imbalance.

The obstacle faced when holding largely male dominated political parties accountable for equal representation? The question - “Where are the women?”.

The Brief: Drive greater representation of women in Indian politics, by influencing political parties to give more tickets to women to contest State level elections.

The Challenge: Make it impossible for political parties to turn a blind eye towards women’s representation.

Who’s the Fairest (and most Effective) of them all?

Indian Parliamentarians are oath bound to ensure a representative democracy, yet we are failing half our population.

Increased women in Governance is not only an issue of fairness - they have been proven to increase both Living standards as well as Economic performance.

1. Global Gender Index reports have shown a correlation between the increased participation of women and the development in the areas of health, education, family care, social welfare, the environment.

2. Within India – in pockets with higher women’s representation, there is 12% decline in mother’s mortality, Economic performance rises by 2%, 22% higher chance of project completion, 20% improvement in gender parity.

From faceless to “In-your-Face”

In order to make it impossible for politicians to turn a blind eye, towards the able and available women leaders at grassroots, level - Shakti partnered with The Times of India, India’s premier daily, to create a movement called -

The Selfless-Selfie.

We took a simple, accessible, universal phenomenon – arguably the most self-serving act:

The SELFIE - and turned it into a statement that flooded our screens , newspapers and consciousness with the faces of women leaders , and their significant development achievements, igniting a grassroots women’s movement, that is shaking the pillars of Indian power centers.

Flip the Perception, Flip the Camera.

Women working hard in the trenches of the political movement are invisible in terms of their presence and their achievements. This systemic unfairness has stopped them from asking for their due.

Therefore, our strategy was to flip what is considered the norm.

Flip the Bias: From homemakers to community leaders. Women make excellent leaders because they understand what homes and communities really need.

Flip the Narrative: From the fiction of women can’t lead to the facts of their presence and achievements.

Flip the Gaze: From “Where are the women?” To “Here we Are!”.

Primary Audience

Parliamentarians, a majority of whom are male and are instrumental in giving tickets to female candidates.

Secondary Audience

The women of India – As victims of patriarchy for so long, they are looking for ways to bring sustainable change to society by being heard and given their due.

We started with Bihar – the country’s poorest, most illiterate state with least representation of women in parliament.

Be Seen

We mobilized women leaders below state level to take selfies of themselves and their achievements and tag their community and political leaders, asking to be nominated. Shakti collaborated with 140 organizations to simultaneously reach 126 elected representatives in just 2.5 hours. Young Bihari women started tagging their leaders demanding more candidates in the state elections.

Be Heard

As hundreds of selfies started to pour in it caught the media’s attention, who amplified a state phenomenon into a national issue.

Parallelly, we launched a film for parliamentarians questioning the 1:10 gender skew in state assemblies.

Be Relentless

This is not a flash in the pan – but a movement that is on-going and rolling out state to state before state elections, ensuring that we don’t stop till we get our half!

The groundswell that this campaign created could not be ignored – In Bihar fielded candidates went up, across political parties, to a highest ever 8% to 10%.

The ruling party gave an unprecedented 19% of tickets to women

We then rolled out the movement everywhere a new election would come up.

Bengal state elections saw ruling party women candidates up to a never before seen 17%.

With state level involvement led by women – voter turnout has risen faster and has been higher than men’s turnout for state elections.

This movement is ongoing, state by state elections we are clear - We will not stop until half is us, half is ours.