Project OBO: Our Bodies, (Our) Opinions

Project OBO: Our Bodies, (Our) Opinions is a youth-led, youth focused non-governmental organisation based in Kolkata, India, aimed at creating positive spaces for young people to come together to discuss body-centric issues through conversation, media and art in an uninhibited, safe manner. OBO was founded by Mirna Guha, aged 22 at the time, in 2009. OBO's stated purpose is to provide young people of Kolkata with a platform to explore, develop and showcase their talents, and then encourages them to use those talents to spread awareness on the issues such as the body, sexual identity, gender diversity, personal safety (including self defence), child abuse, domestic abuse, sexual harassment, sexually transmitted disease, etc. Through media such as poetry, music, movement, dance, painting, photography, film, and other fine arts, during a series of workshops, OBO's intent is to train participants to become youth leaders who in turn, can train other youngsters to do the same, and pass on its philosophy.

Origin

In 2009, October, Start Up! an incubator for social enterprises in Delhi and Anjali, an organisation that works on mental health in Kolkata, collaborated to form "Lattoo Academy" a week-long residential training institute for young social changemakers. At the end of training period, that covered a wide variety of social issues, around 20 participants, including Mirna Guha, were asked to design their own projects which would address a social issue that they personally deeply cared about. The ideas the organisers judged the best were awarded a Lattoo Fellowship from the Sri Ratan Tata Trust to enable the participants to start implementing their ideas.

After a three-month-long selection procedure, Guha was awarded the fellowship. Project OBO was founded by Mirna Guha in 2009 as a result of this fellowship. In an interview with Sex, Etc., Guha explained that her project was inspired by a realisation that sexual abuse is commonplace, and how this affects young boys and girls in India, and the world at large. In an interview with Idealist.org, Guha spoke of her frustration with how, in her opinion, anything centered on the subject of sex was treated as taboo in much of India, and she felt she needed to do something to challenge that. This frustration was the inspiration behind Project OBO.

Mirna Guha, believes that myths regarding gender roles and correct body shape, size or colour, etc., have been rarely challenged. She argues that the notion that young urban Indians have easy access to information regarding these topics is also a myth, and that while it may be true that young urban Indians have a vast amount of information at their disposal, they do not have suitable spaces in which they are encouraged to discuss this information in a constructive, positive way. She believes this results in young people becoming inured to, and/or adopting popular stereotypes before they've had a chance to question them.

Initial hurdles

Early on during its planning stages, OBO had intended to work with schools and other educational institutions, but many of those they approached were unreceptive to the idea of their students participating in workshops dealing with sensitive, "taboo" topics. However, OBO found suitable non-institutional spaces to carry on their work.

Phase one

For their first phase of action, from March 2009 to May 2010, OBO implemented their plans in several stages. The first stage consisted of a series of open workshops held in non-institutionalised spaces where participants were encouraged to think for themselves and create a work of art, which best expresses, their opinions on the issues. Each workshop consisted of six hours of activities involving discussions, games, art projects targeted at young people in the age range of 14–18 years. The module for the workshops involved challenging the participants to question their pre-conceived notions and beliefs, and to use art to express their doubts, concerns and opinions regarding the body, sexuality, etc. These workshops were especially targeted to those young people who were keen on receiving training on becoming "change makers" and who would be willing to spread the kind of awareness and education they received from OBO to other groups of people.

In the second stage, these works of art were showcased in a series of exhibitions, in both public and private places in the city. In the third stage, participants of the workshops were encouraged to put the training they had received and spread it amongst others and create mass awareness about the issues which OBO considers important, are hardly talked about.

Internal organisation

OBO began as a voluntary group of University students who were in their late teens and early twenties and who worked with participants in their early to mid teens.

Organisational members in Phase I, 2009-2010:

• Mirna Guha—Founder, Facilitation, Resources, Modules
• Athena Mondal—Logistics & Documentation
• Priyanka Kumar—Creative Team & Publicity
• Soumi Sarkar—Creative Team & Publicity
• Shreya Sanghani—Facilitation, Resources, Modules
• Nayantara Mazumder—Facilitation, Resources, Modules
• Arjun Raj—Documentation, assistance
• Lav Kanoi—Documentation, assistance

Supporting organisations

The first phase of OBO was funded by the Lattoo Fellowship awarded by Sri Ratan Tata Trust, and supported by Anjali, a Kolkata-based mental health and human rights initiative, as well as Start Up!, a Delhi-based organisation which provides a range of non-financial services to help launch, promote and nurture new social justice initiatives across the country. The first phase of OBO (2009–2010) was funded by Rotary Club, Inner City, Kolkata.

Chronological account of workshops and events

• 23 August 2009: First Open OBO Workshop
• 29 August 2009: Second OBO Open Workshop
• 13 September 2009: A follow-up workshop for a group of participants from the first two open workshops on Child Sexual Abuse awareness and dealing with disclosure.
• 18 September 2009: A follow-up workshop for a group of participants from the first two open workshops, on Sexual Harassment/Self Defence with Ms. Ayesha Sinha
• 19 September 2009: The Third OBO Open Workshop
• 4 Oct 2009: OBO’s Child Sexual Abuse awareness workshop with participants from the second and third open workshops. (4-hour workshop)
• 10 Oct 2009: OBO’s Sexual Identity workshop with 11 participants from the first three open workshops.
• 18 December 2009: The OBO Photography Workshop, to enable participants to use their latent photography skills to express their opinions about body/sexuality centric issues.
• 2 January 2010: The Project OBO Art Exhibition
• 30 January 2010: The Project OBO Self Defence Workshop for women between the age of 14-23, with Sutapa Patra, a Wenildo (feminist methodology of selfdefence). Patra is also a Changelooms Fellow and founder of an organisation called "Amader Prerana", in Sagar Islands, West Bengal, India. "Amader Prerana" has many young volunteers, who work in their communities to stop violence against women. This introductory workshop was of a duration of 4 hours and the participants were put through the introductory steps of self defence through the use of discussion, role-plays and the like. Interested participants from this workshop were invited to enrol in a three-day intensive training program with Patra.
• 26 January 2010 at 00:00, to 16 February 2010 at 23:55: OBO Short Film Competition. Participants were asked to make short films on any language of their choice, uses any technology available to them on the following themes:
  • PINK (Sexuality)
  • MAN.ENOUGH (Masculinity)
  • WHOSE BODY IS MY BODY? (Body and Control)
  • ERECT (Disability)

The participants were allowed to shoot their films in any format (digibeta, hdv, dvcam, dv, etc.) and with any device (professional cameras, consumer handycams, mobile phones, etc.) and could be fictional, documentary or experimental in nature.

• 30 April 2010:Screening of participant entries to the Project OBO short film-making competition; Film Screening on Disability: Shuktara by Samimitra Das and Bullets and Butterflies by Sushmit Ghosh; Question and Answer Sessions; Panel discussion on the representation of disability in Bollywood, Short talk by Ms. Swati Chatterjee from "Sannidhhya" on Working on Issues of Deformity
• 1 May: "Camera Obscura", a film making workshop with independent film maker and director of Bullets and Butterflies, Sushmit Ghosh; Film Screening on Sexuality: Ma Vie En Rose by Alain Berliner
• 2 May: Film Screening on Body and Control: Sea in the Blood by Richard Fung; Film Screening on Masculinity: TransAmerica by Duncan Tucker, Boys Don't Cry by Kimberley Peirce

Awards

OBO was shortlisted for the Changelooms Award which recognises projects of potential by a Delhi organisation called Pravah.

References

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