At the canteen of the Women’s Christian College, Chennai, a mannequin draped in a sari is covered in stickers from the face down to below the waist.
The stickers mark parts of the body where women have been touched inappropriately.
The initiative is part of NGO Prajnya’s 16-day campaign that began on November 25 against gender violence.
“We first placed the mannequin outside the canteen with a poster explaining what it was. Within half an hour, it was covered with stickers. We moved it inside the canteen in the evening and, the next day, more stickers appeared. It’s great that students feel they can express themselves about harassment. This could also lead to important conversations,” said Helen Thimmayya, head of the English department.
The organisation has placed the mannequins at three other locations in the city — at the Shree Ayurvedic Multispecialty Hospital in West Mambalam, at the Chamiers shop in Nandanam and at the International Foundation for Crime Prevention and Victim Care in Anna Nagar.
“People tend to trivialise street sexual harassment — it’s not spoken about. Even if it is, women are told to accept it and move on. Young women, especially, are afraid to tell their parents or teachers, thinking they may be blamed or their freedom restricted. We want people to talk about it and realise that this is huge, and that we should take notice of it and think of solutions together,” said Ragamalika Karthikeyan, programme officer, Prajnya. The NGO works in the areas of peace, justice and security.
Ms. Karthikeyan spoke of how, when the mannequin was put up at the hospital, it started an impromptu discussion among the staff, who began sharing their experiences.
For Sandhya Kannan, the mannequin, covered with stickers, including on its arms and face, represents a tangible way of speaking about sexual harassment. “I’ve attended a lot of seminars on sexual harassment but in all of them the topic was dealt with in a way that was not very tangible. I think that with this, we are pushing the boundaries of what we can talk about. The mannequin is draped in a sari — this helps get rid of the notion that women’s clothes somehow matter when it comes to sexual harassment,” said the second-year student.
