TISB Students at Women's Day

International Women’s Day is held on 8 March every year. It is a day to commemorate the importance of the cultural, political, and socio-economic rights of women, and works as a focal point in the women's rights movement – with organisations highlighting issues, such as gender equality, reproductive rights and violence against women.

Women of the world want and deserve an equal future free from stigma, stereotypes and violence; a future that’s sustainable, peaceful, with equal rights and opportunities for all. To get us there, the world needs women at every table where decisions are being made – UN Women.

Over the years it has become clear that women’s full and effective participation and leadership in all areas of life is a driver of progress and development for everyone. Due to the importance of including women in decision-making and implementing ideas, this year’s theme for the International Women’s Day was ‘Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world’ – celebrating the immense efforts by girls and women around the world in shaping a more equal future.  At TISB there are several students and student-led groups that engage with issues and thematic areas related to women’s rights and the development towards a more equal society and world.  Below follows some examples of these endeavours.

#MeriPocket

#MeriPocket is movement initiated by Taarini, a TISB Grade 12 student. The aim of the movement is to empower girls and women through fashion; by advocating for pockets in womenswear.  “The Pocket!  A symbol of power, a mandatory element in menswear.  Over the years, conveniently neglected and considerably sized down in womenswear as if phones, car keys, and wallets were magically expected to shrink", explains Taarini – an IB art student, who’s contribution to this year’s art exhibition was centred around fashion design and gender inequality.

The Meri Pocket initiative has collaborated with Girl Up India, Rotary Club, FICCI Flo (Kolkata & Kanpur) and several other organisations to spread awareness and demand pockets. Pockets are “evocative of a reserve, a sanctuary for warmth, a place visited to regain confidence.  A feature instrumental in creating functional clothing: Pockets = Equality. Through ‘The Pocket Collection’, the #meripocket movement aims to empower by asserting the importance of pockets in womenswear while paying significant attention to sustainability and ethical fashion”, says Taarini who launched the initiative on this year’s Women’s Day and took part in an online event hosted by WICCI India; where she also showed a song recorded at TISB.

Support the movement by following @meri.pocket on Instagram. Visit the MeriPocket website for more information and to find out what is in your pocket today.

TISB Girl Up Group

One of TISB’s After School Clubs and cross curricular activities, is the Girl Up TISB club – a sub-chapter of the United Nations movement with the same name.  The student-led group meets every week to discuss local and global issues related to gender (in)equality, and plan for future events and projects.  During the past year most of the work done has been online and has included a project in cooperation with ‘Blank Noise’ tackling street harassment and gender-based violence and the ‘Gender Ratios’ project spreading awareness about the disparities between genders in sports.

The Girl Up projects are carried out through intense preparations and work.  “We have hourly meetings every Thursday where we discuss, not only global issues, but also plan out the whole event.  The final outcome was a structured webinar with our panellists and MCs”, explains Grade 11 student Trisha R, who was involved in the planning and execution of the latest event, ‘Consensus: Should everyone be a feminist?’ that took place on 7 March.

The ‘Consensus’ event “was inspired by the ‘Middle Ground’ episodes by Jubilee”, says Neha T, and explains that they brought together panellists who self-identified as feminists and non-feminists to spark conversation.  The team behind the event wanted to encourage genuine and open conversation – promoting empathy and all points of view.  “We chose to discuss feminism because that is the foundation for Girl Up but is a controversial stance which requires serious and respectful discourse”, explains Armaan B on the choice of topic.  “Our target audience includes people debating whether they identify as feminists, feminists looking to understand the other side, and non-feminists finding an open discussion between both sides”, says Ananya G, highlighting the importance of balanced and healthy dialogue.

The group is busy and has started bringing out ideas and plans for the future. “We plan to make 'Consensus' a series – we're always searching for more ways to engage our club members as well as the community, and with the advent of online and hybrid learning online events such as Consensus, the Gender Ratios Project and the Girl Up x Blank Noise event help us do so”, Says Rohini S, while hoping for the current situation to improve soon so that the group can be back at school and conduct more in-person events.

To learn more, watch the Girl Up TISB group’s video on YouTube.

Trisha V’s WWE Talk

“Token days, such as International Women's Day, are vital in bringing social issues into the mainstream spotlight.  While every day should be dedicated to doing the work, it is on this day where we can collectively reflect on all our achievements, and the progress we still need to make”, says Grade 12 student, Trisha V who has been part of the Girl Up since its start-up at the school and has now handed over the leadership to the next generation.

As part of the global Girl Up advisory board, Trisha has explored and engaged in issues related to representation, for example, in sport.  “Advocating for inclusion in sport is vital to the gender equity movement because sports is culture, media, and a form of education.  Who we see playing sport is who we come to believe belong in sport.  Media shapes our outlook and perspective - we are what we consume”, says Trisha who, although not being a sport fan, spoke at the WWE India Instagram channel on 8 March. (https://www.instagram.com/tv/CMKH_62FwUf/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet).

Other than being part of the Girl Up group, Trisha has been involved in a range of other groups and initiatives, such as the ‘s(H)e the docuseries’ India chapter and ‘Igniting Youth’.  

She also has plans to continue her work in the future:  “I would like to work in the climate change and gender spaces, through policy and law, and maybe work in the UN or government sector – advocating for female political representation, indigenous knowledge systems, and sustainable development are in my opinion all related to the same goal”.

At TISB, students and staff look forward to another year of actively working every day for a more equal and better world for everyone.