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Delhi Legal Service Authority (DLSA) in collaboration with Delhi University Community Radio (DUCR) initiated an 11 part legal rights awareness programme. While talking to DU Beat, Gayathri Mani, media coordinator of the campaign explained that the objective, in its short term-pilot project basis, is to direct and route people to nearest Legal Aid/ Services Clinics set up by the Delhi state Legal Services Authority and managed under the supervision of concerned District Legal Services Authority. She added that the thrust area of the campaign is ‘Students’ and their involvement in areas of ‘Legal Literacy’. Besides, 65% of the population in India comprises of Youth and thus the youth needs to be aware and able regarding the issues of justice. This campaign was wholly executed by the student volunteers.

The radio series, which ran 30-40 minutes per session, entailed question-answer format type interaction with the Judges and DUCR and Para Legal Volunteers on the enlisted topics ranging from sexual harassment of women at workplace, juvenile justice, consumer protection to rights of senior citizens. The recordings lasted from 15^th March, 2016 to 6^th April 2016 and the first episode was broadcasted on 5^th November. “The timings of the show are not fixed, but will run multiple times between 1:00-4:30 pm”, Mr. Isaac John, Assistant Consultant, DUCR said. You can hear the radio show on DUCR at 90.4 MHz or you can also download the app “DURadio”.

After the successful completion of the project, DLSA and DUCR have proposed phase two of the project, in which they will connect a loop with the community radio in the country, to the Ministry of Broadcasting.

Feature Image: Bloomberg

Niharika Dabral

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The Delhi University Community Radio (DUCR), in association with Sana Fatima, a second year Masters in Social Work student hosted ‘Manzoori’ in a bid to sensitise people on the idea of homosexuality on 6th May, 2016. The primary motive, as in words of Sana Fatima, is to increase the acceptance level towards the LGBT & MSM community.

The program aimed to focus on all aspects of life: the social stigmas homosexuals and transgenders face, economic and financial issues they are forced to battle, their standard of living and health and the big question mark associated with Article 377.

Sana Fatima approached Mr. R. K. Singh, spokesperson of the Department of Social Work of Delhi University after the proposal of such a radio show got approved with the organisation she was associated to for social work. Researching for the show, she interviewed some gays and transgenders from the organisation she was a part of, read articles and journals on the atrocities faced by the LGBT community in this country and followed TV shows like ‘Zindagi Live’ and ‘Satyamev Jayate’ to gain more insight on homosexuality.

“Being a social work student I felt I should make use of every opportunity which is available to me. Indeed homosexuality is a very controversial topic, but that doesn’t call for ignoring it.”, Sana said. After thorough research, Sana, Mr. Singh and two volunteers from DUCR, Ms. Alisha and Ms. Saniya started recording for their program which was titled ‘Manzoori’ that hints at their crusade towards acceptance.

Along with sharing real life incidences and experiences, the program also hosted a few volunteers, working for the rights of the LGBT Community and a few doctors and lawyers for covering the health and legal aspects of such individuals’ lives.

“All we need to do is give ourselves time to get in terms with homosexuality, but do not name it as a disease or something abnormal, because it’s something as natural as heterosexuality. It’s just that homosexuals are in minorities, but we shouldn’t forget that minorities are very much a part of our country and society.”, Sana added.

The program aims to face every challenge posed by the existing regressive ideology of this country head on and the volunteers are motivated to eradicate the idea of ‘homosexuality’ as being something that’s abnormal or not human. They also question the lags and callous attitude of the Indian Judiciary towards section 377 due to which sexual minorities have faced endless violence and marginalisation. They aim to make their voices heard, infuse the idea of how homosexuality has been a part of the society ever since its existence and emphasise on the dire need of having policies for the upliftment of sexual minorities, so that their education, health and employment aspect is not ignored.

With Inputs from Sana Fatima

Image Credits: theodysseyonline.com

Arushi Pathak
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