By Maya Palit
Over the last 20 years, the Mumbai-based nonprofit organisation Point of View has been amplifying the voices of marginalised women around the country through media, art, and culture. It has collaborated with various organisations, including the Internet Democracy Project, to facilitate conversations about sexual expression, rights, and consent.
In 2012, it initiated a program called ‘Sexuality and Disability’, in collaboration with the Delhi-based feminist organisation CREA. It engages with the sexual rights of women with disabilities, and issues surrounding gender violence and sexuality. Headed by gender activist Nidhi Goyal, it also addresses various questions that might crop up for women with disabilities, including the complexities, mechanics, and dynamics of sex, parenting, sexual assault, relationships, and childbirth.
As part of its efforts to discuss the prejudices that women with disabilities have to navigate, it is participating in ‘One billion rising’, a global campaign discussing women’s rights through the arts. This year’s theme is exploitation – including systemic sexual and physical violence against women – and Point of View is organising an open event in Mumbai this weekend to celebrate women with disabilities, who are often rendered invisible, and the diversity of bodies.
This will include slam poetry by a woman on mental health, stand up comedy by a woman with visual impairment, group dances by persons with physical disabilities. Finally, the choreographer Sandip Soparrkar and actor Sharbani Mukherji will do a performance based on acid attacks, after which the floor will be opened up for the audience.
The event details are as follows:
Date: 12th February 2017
Venue: Daughters of St Paul, Waterfield road, Bandra (W) (The venue is fully accessible)
Time: 6 pm to 8 pm
The event will have a sign language interpreter to translate spoken word and other performances.