It is hard to imagine Indian cinema without a vibrant and audacious heroine entertaining the masses through film. However, women's portrayal in the Indian media has been challenged by local grassroots activists, who believe that it is perpetuating gender inequality.
"Women will always be disproportionately affected by poverty as long as there is gender discrimination," said Sapna Shahani, Director of the 'Women Aloud Video blogging for Empowerment' (Wave) project. "We need gender equity in the media so that more awareness and information is circulated about development issues since they disproportionately affect women."
As a result, the Wave project was initiated by Shahani alongside Angana Jhaveri in 2009 as a video platform for women based in India to highlight the challenges faced throughout the country, as well as address issues faced by women. "We wanted to apply our knowledge of creating media in the public interest towards development communications in India since we saw there was a gap in the existing information available, particularly through a gender lens," said Shahani.
According to a recent study by the Press Council of India, although the estimated number of women in both the media has increased in absolute terms, the ratio to men in the Indian media has more or less remained static. Areas such as Chennai, South India on the other hand has progressed in terms of allowing women into the media field. Approximately 200 women are now undertaking journalism jobs in the city.
"I think it is important to address the gender ratio of journalists since women's issues do not get adequately represented in the media," said Shahani who began the project after attaining the MacArthur Foundation's Digital Media and Learning Award. "So it was fulfilling to see that our training worked because we had previously never organised such intensive training that conveyed information about the Millennium Development Goals, entrepreneurship and more."
However, media-related work in remote areas has often been seen to be precarious, with a number of incidents of sexual assault, harassment as well as killings seen through the recent murder of Delhi- based Producer, Soumya Vishwanathan in 2008.
The Press Council of India has also been highlighting the importance of portraying women accurately in the media, even reporting that "The nation cannot progress, as long as women are left behind as the lesser half of society. Therefore, the improvement of women's conditions, status and image must be defined to be a major objective for media channels."
As indicated by the Global Media Monitoring Project's report in 2010, only 22% of the people interviewed, heard, seen or read about in mainstream broadcast and print news are female.
Shahani emphasises the importance of India following the United Nation's recent sanctions, to promote gender equality and empower women. "Women's empowerment is the only way India can make progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. An integrated approach is needed between government schemes, NGO initiatives along with general awareness led by a responsible media," stated Shahani.
Roli Majahan, a Lucknow-based freelance reporter has also been adhering to the scheme as part of a new wave of tech-savvy women journalists emerging in the country. With the aid of the Wave project, she has been fully equipped with a video camera and vital media skills to encapsulate the move to empower women on film.
"Wave might not have bought some earth shattering change but it has ignited a spark of change," said Mahajan, the creator of "Naheed, The Woman who tried." The primary focus of the film surrounds Naheed Aqueel, who has sought to educate women by way of strengthening their voice and improving their socio-economic status. Mahajan captures life changing entrepreneurial skills being taught by Aqueel to one of the most underprivileged Muslim women in Northern India.
"I do not like the mainstream media in India because of the lack of the journalistic zeal that one is taught about in Journalism schools, so this was my chance to tell what I wanted in the way I liked," said Mahajan. The film is one of several community-based video blogs featured online for the Wave project in order to tackle the growing problems of a male-dominated media spectrum. Aqueel, who has also joined the Wave project after her entrepreneurial venture, is using the equipment provided by the project, to document her progress.
Neha Sehgal, a Mass Communications lecturer at DAV College for Girls, in Haryana and also a participant in the Wave project has similarly been detailing the progress of women in North India. "Honour killings and female foeticide is a problem that affects Haryana. The removal of this practice in Indian society is a serious challenge. We need wide-scale publicity in the media to highlight the seriousness of the practice," said Sehgal.
However, as a lecturer, Sehgal believes that women's portrayal in the media is not the only problem that needs to be tackled. "It is only by a combination of monitoring, education campaigns, and effective legal implementation that the deep-seated attitudes and practices against women and girls can be eroded," said Sehgal.
The video-blogging movement has proved to be a useful tool as Director Sapna Shahani explains that "It is a good way to share deeper connections across borders and is an affordable tool to increase information and communication around development." And though the scheme originally began as a women-only-network, plans to open up to some men are in the pipeline. "I don't think a women-centric approach is enough to eliminate poverty." Shahani believes that in including men in discussions and actions around women's empowerment, they can sensitise men to critical women's issues.
This feature was written for the Guardian International Development Journalism competition before 13 June 2011.