Jansunvai

JANSUNVAI 

-Riya Binoj

The Women’s Study Centre (WSC) of Jesus and Mary College, University of Delhi celebrated its annual fest, ‘Jagriti’ on the 5th of March,2020 in commemoration of the International Women’s Day. It was sponsored by “Hiccup”, a brand that sells menstrual cups with the aim of providing more sustainable period care products. The fest was broadly divided into three parts. The celebration started with the inaugural event held at Thevenet Hall. This was followed by the conduction of three parallel events which were held across campus: the paper presentation, the quiz and the turncoat debate competition. The fest came to a close with the Jansunvai. 

A Jansunvai is an experience-sharing platform where those attending can talk anything they want under the broad theme of the event. The purpose of a Jansunvai is to furnish a safe space, facilitate dialogue and discussion of relevant topics and to ultimately reach a broad consensus about the same. The Jansunvai was organized by the Women’s Study Centre as part of a collective commemoration of International Women’s Day. It was held from 1:00 pm to 4:00pm at the Amphitheatre. The event was attended by a large number of students belonging to different colleges as well as some faculty members. The session was informal and interactive in nature. The topics widely addressed by the members were regarding the pressing issues of gender discrimination, crimes against women, hypermasculinity, body positivity and mental health welfare. 

The session was opened by introducing the concept of a jansunvai and welcoming all present. After the introduction, a team from the Centre for Struggling Women came forward to explain their agenda and performed a few songs, acknowledging and celebrating the people who have worked relentlessly for achieving equal status for women in the society. After this, many audience members shared their experiences, poems and ideas with the group. A WSC member performed a rap about the rape mentality ingrained in the society. A student recited a poem titled “Another Poem about Abuse” while another student shared her emotional journey towards body positivity. An audience member then recited a metaphoric and sarcastic poem about gender discrimination by drawing attention to the way in which female pronouns are used for describing mother nature all around the globe.

“Khud ki Talaash”, a poem about dealing with the darkness caused by mental illness gripped the audience, who listened with rapt attention. Kahkasha, the Hindi Dramatics Society of JMC, then performed a thought-provoking play about hypermasculinity. Through their last year’s production, they emphasized the intensity with which patriarchy is ingrained in our society. The play highlighted the importance of addressing hypermasculinity since it is one of the layers at which the patriarchal system works. They also addressed the associations made between gender differences and mental illness. For instance, it is often assumed that women are more prone to suffer from eating disorders as compared to men because of the way in which such illness are understood in the society. The depiction of such illnesses in the media often accelerates this assumption. Statistics regarding sexual harassment and assaults faced by men and suicide rates in the society were also discussed. They accentuated that suicide is the second largest killer of men under 50, with rates as high as 68% in India. Their provocative and creative performance captured the audience members. 

The cultural team of WSC performed beautiful renditions of a few protest songs along with the Centre for Struggling Women team such as “Dastoor” and “Hum Dekhenge”. After their performance, certificates and prizes were given to the winners of competitions held earlier in the day. The event came to a close with Dr. Maya John giving the vote of thanks and one last protest song crooned by all present.