Resisting Stigma and Homophobia: Ashok Row Kavi's Expert Deposition, Pune Panchayat
Director: Jeevanandhan Rajendran
Duration: 00:05:38; Aspect Ratio: 1.333:1; Hue: 350.729; Saturation: 0.066; Lightness: 0.333; Volume: 0.168; Words per Minute: 74.663
Summary: Action Plus, a network of 14 organisations working on HIV/AIDS in India, conducted a series of People’s Panchayats in 2009, which sought to understand people's battles against Stigma and Homophobia through the voices of survivors and resistors. The Panchayats sought to address the devaluation of livelihoods and life systems of entire communities of people who practice alternate sexualities, and the erosion of rights or dignity.
This series of People’s Panchayats was held in five cities in India. The first one was in Bangalore on January 28, 2009, the second in Hyderabad on February 6, 2009, the third in Chennai on March 21, 2009 and the fourth on April 11, 2009 in Pune. The fifth and final one was held in New Delhi on April 24, 2009.
Each of the Panchayats followed a similar structure. The interactive meetings were structured to have affected members from sexual minority communities share their personal experiences of living with stigma and homophobia. These were the deposers. Then the two-member expert panel shared their thoughts and ideas based on their experience in the field. The audience comprising of the general public, NGOs, media, opinion leaders and religious communities made their queries and comments at the end of the deposition. There was a brief audience interaction following which the jury or the panch gave its ‘verdict’.
Ashok Row Kavi, a UNAIDS officer and one of the Expert testifiers at the Pune Panchayat, shares his response to the depositions heard. He holds that the response to homophobia should be three-fold: Educate, Agitate and Reform. He elaborates on each of these three tenets in his speech.
I am going to talk about stigma and discrimination. Stigma is a perception – of something being right or wrong. Discrimination is acting on this perception. The way out is to break any organic links between the two. How do you do that? The method to so it is three- fold. Educate, agitate and reform. Humsafar uses a tracking down method with men having sex with men. Shocking this is, the age of the first sexual encounter is 8. Then it is important to teach children too what is sex when they are 8. I tried telling this to Sushma Swaraj, now I am in UNAIDS, I am trying my level best – but they are not willing to accept – even someone like Renuka Chaudhari who is against sex education especially bisexual relationships since it gives children more options. I told her it is not easy to be a homosexual, but the answer is no. Second is activism. What we do here is to normalize the ideas by creating spaces for them. I like the three ideas – awareness, understanding and easily which is normalizing something. By getting yourself into the social landscape of any society, you are normalizing yourself. There is enough evidence, that any person who had homosexual friends is definitely more tolerant.
People's Panchayats on Resisting Stigma and Homophobia; Action Plus - a Coalition for Rights, Education and Care in HIV and AIDS. Ashok Row Kavi, a UNAIDS officer and one of the Expert testifiers at the Pune Panchayat, shares his response to the depositions heard. He holds that the response to homophobia should be three-fold: Educate, Agitate and Reform. He elaborates on each of these three tenets in his speech.
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activist
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educate
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people's panchayats on resisting stigma and homophobia
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reform
renuka chaudhari
sex workers
sushma swaraj
unaids
Pune, India
And the third is structural, and that is to reform some of these laws. Someone who is the technical AIDS officer for National AIDS program and the government has identified three highest risk groups – sex workers, IDUs and MSM. All three groups are criminal groups! It is difficult to work with them since these are legally the criminals. Sex workers are criminalized by IPTA= Imoral Trafficking Act, and homosexuals because of 377. Then how do you work with them. So unless we put these issues on board, it is very difficult. For someone like me who has worked with SC judges, I know that they are total unaware of the differences between sex, sexuality and gender. No human being stops learning till one dies. So don't stop to educate, agitate and reform. Today through all the testimonies we figured that when the parents see something different in their kids, they panic. It creates a gap between kids and parents and that has consequences. One should ask do I stigmatize someone. We are making mistakes by discriminating against them. Today as we have spoken about awareness, understanding ad normalization is necessary not only for a minority but for all in all aspects of life.
People's Panchayats on Resisting Stigma and Homophobia; Action Plus - a Coalition for Rights, Education and Care in HIV and AIDS. Ashok Row Kavi, a UNAIDS officer and one of the Expert testifiers at the Pune Panchayat, shares his response to the depositions heard. He holds that the response to homophobia should be three-fold: Educate, Agitate and Reform. He elaborates on each of these three tenets in his speech.
Pune
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