Girls organize ‘Apna Haq’ screening in Narela - 'अपना हक़' की स्क्रीनिंग नरेला में लड़कियों द्वारा आयोजित

The girls at the Tech Center who were associated with the making of their film ‘Apna Haq’ recently organized a community screening at Narela. We explained the purpose and motive behind making this film and explained the issues we faced while filming it, how it all began, how the girls got together to work on this project and how we performed each of their responsibilities—from shooting, to report writing to editing—efficiently.

We were both happily excited and a little scared of conducting the film screening on their own. As soon as the film began, people started talking about its content and a lot of questions came up for the girls to answer. How did the girls work? Didn’t they fear doing this all on their own? While shooting, did they receive any comments from the boys? How supportive were their parents? During the screening, some guys took interest in the film but soon left after they saw the movie talking about menstruation and how the toilet issue gets worse during the menses. Others saw the film entirely and took real interest in knowing the story behind its making.

After the screening got over, people had many questions. While they were happy and satisfied, they were curious about the following:

1. Where did you shoot this film? Which area?
2. Where else have you screened this film?
3. What are the girls shown in this movie doing today?
4. To what extent was your problem solved after making this movie?
5. How supportive are people of this film?

We answered all these questions efficiently. We explained how girls from Jal Vihar community themselves came forward with the problem of toilets and the urgency to do something about it. Girls especially face a lot of problems with regard to either the absence or the sheer filth and dirt of existing toilets. They are so bad that they cannot be used on a daily basis. We felt that we needed to tell this to as many people as we could and so we decided to make a movie on this. While we did face problems initially, our parents also turned supportive towards the end of the making.

We told them about our previous experience of having conducted community screenings independently and its great success. We told them how we spoke with the audience on this issue and brainstormed on suggestions and ways of dealing with this problem. During these screenings, we also garnered support from some young boys and men who promised to help us in taking this issue forward. We have also filed an RTI application wanting to know why these toilets are so filthy and not maintained regularly.

We wish to get answers to our problems and take this forward so that the problem that we face every day in our communities can be reduced and we can soon avail the facility of using a clean toilet.

- Rekha Yadav

Rekha is an alumnus of our Tech Center and is currently interning with FAT. Edited and translated by Deepa Ranganathan.