A 3 Day Gender Mela successfully concluded in Miranda House

The Gender Mela was organised by Women’s Development Cell, Miranda House in collaboration with Men Engage, One Billion Rising, Centre for Health and Social Justice, Women’s Feature Service and Actionaid from 11th-13th February 2016. The event aimed to focus on the issues of gender, social justice and masculinities to the fore. The Gender Mela consisted of various events such as debates, panel discussions, cultural performances, nukkad natak, flash mobs, film screenings and many more.

The event commenced on February 11th with a seminar on gender, masculinity, and sustainable development. Seminars on understanding queer, Intersectionalities of caste and gender, gender, climate change and dalit issues, understanding the perspectives of sexual minorities also took place. Eminent speakers such as Kamla Bhasin(Sangat), Abhijit Das(CHSJ), Rituparna Borah(Nazariya), Sanjay Srivastav(JNU), Ms Kusum(President AIASW), Ms Abhina Aher(Transgender right activist) and many more were present at the event to share their experiences and opinions on a number of issues revolving around gender.

A round-table discussion of representatives of various youth-led movements such as Pinjra Tod and Happy to Bleed also took place. Film screenings of ‘Mardangi’, ‘I am a Girl’ and ‘Danish Girl’ were held. The event also comprised of flash mobs, inter-college debate, and nukkad natak along with cultural performances by Goonj, Dhruv Vishwanath, and LokNaad.

The event was open to everyone, and people from various universities attended them. Discussions and interactive sessions made it more engaging as more and more people opened up and talked about their opinions on issues relating to gender which are still sensitive in our country. For the first time in Delhi University, a platform was provided to everyone to discuss and share their perspectives upon such issues and get a better understanding of it.

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