Upon the diktat of Dad and the need for expression, I start this Diary of Journeys again.
Over the past 14 months, I have been working as a Video Trainer with Drishti, a Media, Arts & Human Rights group based in Ahmedabad on a Community Media project. It is in partnership with Video Volunteers, a NY based non-profit which is committed to provide marginalized people with a platform for voice and accelerate social change.
Our core activity is establishing sustainable Community Video Units (CVUs) in partnership with leading NGO’s. Each Community Video Unit (CVU) comprises up to 10 community members, primarily women, who produce one "Video News Magazine" each month that is shown back to communities using wide-screen projectors or local cable networks. In 2006, six CVU’s were launched in India. Collectively, these CVU’s have produced more than 50 video’s in their first year alone, on issues of social justice, development and human rights, that will be seen by thousands of people in their communities, providing a local, national and global platform for voice.
One of the units has been set up in Panchmahal’s, a visually stunning and communally volatile District of Gujarat. Situated, in the picturesque city of Halol, on the foot of Pavagarh Hills, the place breathes an air of unique freshness mixed with a strange sense of tension.
Our core activity is establishing sustainable Community Video Units (CVUs) in partnership with leading NGO’s. Each Community Video Unit (CVU) comprises up to 10 community members, primarily women, who produce one "Video News Magazine" each month that is shown back to communities using wide-screen projectors or local cable networks. In 2006, six CVU’s were launched in India. Collectively, these CVU’s have produced more than 50 video’s in their first year alone, on issues of social justice, development and human rights, that will be seen by thousands of people in their communities, providing a local, national and global platform for voice.
One of the units has been set up in Panchmahal’s, a visually stunning and communally volatile District of Gujarat. Situated, in the picturesque city of Halol, on the foot of Pavagarh Hills, the place breathes an air of unique freshness mixed with a strange sense of tension.
The city of Halol is on the highway linking Baroda to Godhra. As much as one hates oneself for living in the past, the only image that comes to mind when you see a signboard that reads, Godhra 40 kms, is that of train carnage on Feburary 27, 2002 and the communal riots between Hindus and Muslims that engulfed the state in the following months.
Perhaps the biggest scar on the face of India’s secular democracy, more than 1000 people, mostly Muslims, died in the violence. Many sources claim that this violence was state sponsored and targeted on Muslims, with the support of right-winged extremist Sangh Parivar, who misled innocent youth to unleash terror on their own brothers and sisters, in the name of religion. Panchmahals was the most riot-affected district of the state where every young man had perpeterated, or been a victim of, violence.
Perhaps the biggest scar on the face of India’s secular democracy, more than 1000 people, mostly Muslims, died in the violence. Many sources claim that this violence was state sponsored and targeted on Muslims, with the support of right-winged extremist Sangh Parivar, who misled innocent youth to unleash terror on their own brothers and sisters, in the name of religion. Panchmahals was the most riot-affected district of the state where every young man had perpeterated, or been a victim of, violence.
In response to this violence, Janvikas, an Ahmedabad based NGO launched Yuvshakti, a youth based intervention to increase communication and provide livelyhood. The Community Video Unit in Halol, called Sakshi (Witness) has been operational for the past 14 months. During this period, they have made films on subjects such as Livelyhood, Right to Food, Education and Basic Infrastructure. The aim of the unit is to fight for equality and promote peace and justice in their District. Their aim is to bear witness and expose, rights violations in their area to encourage government action.
Locate the CVU on Wikimapia : http://wikimapia.org/#lat=22.500068&lon=73.485736&z=16&l=0&m=a&v=2
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