BN HYDERABAD MEET DEC 13

Location: Lawns, Eat Street- Necklace Road
Hyderabad Action Heroes include- Samir, Ramya, Nandini
facilitator- Samir
report writer- Ramya
minutes of the meeting- Nandini

Ramya reports:

Slide show- With the help of a technically proficient person, a flash movie that creates awareness on staring/stalking/sexual harassment will be made. Prasad’s IMAX will be approached to screen the movie in the minutes preceding the movie shows. More theatres will be roped in later on
Women-centric organizations local to Hyderabad, such as Asmitha Foundation can be involved in setting up and a manning a helpline for counselling victims. Nandini will follow it up through the secretary of Asmitha Foundation.
To reach out to more women and document experiences, student communities in Hyderabad will be targeted. There is need to spread the word around educational institutions such as OU, NALSAR and others. This will be taken up as soon the political situation in AP improves
Sessions can be conducted in companies like Deloitte and others which have a significant number of female employees.

1. BITSAA, the BITS Pilani Alumni network can be utilized. Ramya will look into publishing a piece about Blank Noise in the next issue of the BITSAA newsletter.
2. Dr. Reddy’s Foundation will be contacted in order to figure out the best way to organize our activities, to get in touch with the right people and to obtain more support.
3. Samir will put in a word with Rotary Club for the same purpose.

The Hyderabad leg of Blank Noise meetings witnessed a lower-than-expected turnout with only three members getting together to chalk out an agenda for the city this year. While Nalini Nagarajan and Ramya Kumar were first-timers to Blank Noise, Samir Gandhi, who has been involved with the Hyderabad chapter for three years now gave the other two an idea of how far Blank Noise has gotten in Hyderabad.

Since there were only three members were present, the reading-aloud of scripts and enactment of role plays gave way to an informal exchange of views about sexual harassment. The focus was on the approach that Hyderabad would require, keeping in mind cultural nuances and local perspectives. A decent variety of ideas were thrown up and recorded faithfully. Owing to the proximity to Christmas vacation and the atmosphere of uncertainty prevailing in Hyderabad campuses, they will be carried forward January onwards.