By Manasi Nene
It is not a little-known fact in India that we’re in dire need of better sanitation facilities. Haryana launched a campaign to help women marry into the families that had their own toilets, and there is a link between sexual violence and the lack of sanitation. Even then, though, with a population as dense as ours, there is always some more work to be done.
This ad by Astral Pipes is another effort towards the same. In a video that’s half-film-scene and half-street-play, they’ve tried to link together sexual violence, and the shame that comes with it, with the fact that women have to travel alone at night, often long distances, to relieve themselves.
Featuring a group of women with bells, drums and red saris, this ad pulls no punches. When a group of men from their village start – for lack of a better term – conducting their business out in the open, this group of women immediately starts making fun of them. It’s very schoolyard-like, at least in the beginning, but things take a turn when they all start talking about izzat, honour/pride.
One of the men asks if they really wanted to continue doing this – the women are gaav ki izzat, or pride of the village. The women have a sharp answer waiting:
Der raat jaane mein kya hai izzat?
Taaka jhaaki karke, di hai izzat?
Chhed-chhad karke, di hai izzat?
Balatkar karke, kya di hai izzat?
This literally translates to, is there honour in going out late at night? Is there any honour in peeping through our windows, in eve-teasing, in rape? Predictable enough, the men have no great answer. After a very PSA-like message about building toilets everywhere, the last shot in the video is my favourite one – a mother teaching her daughter the same chant that had been used previously.