Poster Women Archives: Voicing Violence
Violence against women is the biggest challenge of the women's movement.
From its very inception, the women's movement in India has focused on violence against women as a key area of struggle, with the early campaigns addressing some of the more obvious forms of violence such as rape, dowry, widow immolation.
"Do You Know?"Zubaan
"Do You Know?"
A collage of posters against violence. Each of the images of this poster is taken from a separate poster, and they cover issues from rape, police brutality, domestic violence, trafficking and so on.
Source: Natya Chetana
Location: Bhubaneswar, Orissa
Language: Oriya
StricturesZubaan
Poster on all the strictures that are put on women: 'Do not go out in the dark, do not go out alone... do not live.'
Source: Jagori
Artist: Bindiya Thapar
Language: Hindi
(Translated from English by Kamla Bhasin)
Courtesy: London Rape Crisis Centre
Those who have powerZubaan
"Those who have power use violence to maintain it."
Source: Aalochana
Location: Pune, Maharashtra
Language: Marathi
Domestic AwarenessZubaan
The husband beats the wife, the mother-in-law beats the daughter-in-law. How can you accept this? Resist violence.
Source: Aalochana
Location: Pune, Maharashtra
Language: Marathi
What Women FaceZubaan
"Women face violence in the home, they face the violence of religion and caste outside."
Source: Aalochana
Location: Pune, Maharashtra
Language: Marathi
VDAYZubaan
Part of the annual fortnight to protest violence against women, VDAY is marked by meetings and discussions all over the country.
Source: Kriti
Location: New Delhi
Language: English
Poster by Lawyers Collective, Women’s Rights Initiative, UNIFEMZubaan
A general poster on violence against women.
Source: Lawyers Collective, Women's Rights Initiative, UNIFEM
Location: New Delhi
Artists: Drawn by Golak and designed by Bindia Thapar
Language: English
Poster by Lawyers Collective, Women’s Rights Initiative, UNIFEMZubaan
Source: Lawyers Collective, Women’s Rights Initiative, UNIFEM
Location: Mumbai, Maharashtra
Language: English
Two key cases catalysed the nationwide campaign against rape: one of a young tribal woman in Mathura who was raped by two policemen, and the other of a poor woman, Rameeza Bee, whose attackers, also policemen, killed her husband. The subsequent campaign led to major changes in the rape law in the mid-1980s. Similarly, the anti-dowry campaign, sparked off by a number of newspaper reports about the unnatural deaths of young newly- married women, also resulted in legal change.
Awareness Poster 27Zubaan
Girls are being sold. Beware! Protecting them is our responsibility.
Source: Ankuram
Location: Secunderabad, Andhra Pradesh
Language: Telugu
Awareness Poster 33Zubaan
"I had a dream of a beautiful house, loving husband and children. All was shattered when I came to know that I was given for sex trade on the pretext of marriage.
We have promised to stop trafficking of women and children."
Source: “Sneha Abhiyan” Erasama
Location: Jagatsinghpur, Orissa
Language: Oriya
Awareness Poster 32Zubaan
A poster addressing the issue of violence within the health system.
Source: Dilasa
Location: Maharashtra
Language: Urdu
Awareness Poster 37Zubaan
Source: India Safe and International Centre for Research, Multisite Household Survey, National Foundation for India
Location: New Delhi, Delhi
Language: English, Hindi
Awareness Poster 17Zubaan
This poster was created sometime in 1997/98 during a poster-making workshop organized at the National Gallery of Modern Art by Dasrath Patel and Sadanand Menon. This poster in particular was supervised by Sadanand himself.
Source: Jagori
Location: New Delhi
Language: English
Conceptualised and Created: Manjima Bhattacharjya, Neelam Gupta
Awareness Poster 20Zubaan
"Is this a private matter? No, it is a crime," says a poster that shows neighbours taking an active part in stopping domestic violence.
Source: Sahyog
Location: Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh
Design: Arjun
Language: Hindi
Awareness Poster 38Zubaan
"No more silence." A poster protesting domestic violence.
Source: Jagori
Artist: Kamla Bhasin, Bindia Thapar
Location: New Delhi, Delhi
Language: Hindi
Awareness Poster 36Zubaan
"How can equal rights be achieved in a cruel society? Change that society first."
Source: National Campaign for Housing Rights
Location: West Bengal
Language: Bengali
Among the other forms of violence that the movement has taken up some have been more difficult to address because they take place in the private realm, and women are reluctant to speak about them. Today, nearly a quarter century after it began to be raised publicly, women's groups have secured some legal change in relation to domestic violence and sexual harassment.
Awareness Poster 28Zubaan
"Let us make our homes free from domestic violence.".
Source: Centre for World Solidarity
Location: Secunderabad, Andhra Pradesh
Language: Telugu, English
Awareness Poster 29Zubaan
Source: AP Women’s Network, Centre for World Solidarity (CWS), OXFAM
Location: Secunderabad, Andhra Pradesh
Language: English
Awareness Poster 15Zubaan
This poster deals with the serious issue of suicide. The 24 Parganas region records a high rate of adolescent suicide and this poster shows a young unmarried woman who has killed herself because she discovers she is pregnant. The caption reads: “equip us with knowledge and information so we do not destroy ourselves. We have a lot to contribute to society.”
Source: Nishtha (Kishori Bahini)
Location: 24 Parganas, West Bengal
Language: Bengali
Awareness Poster 16Zubaan
A poster showing a young bride running away from her wedding ceremony. The caption reads: "I want to play, I want to fly and be free as a bird, I want to enjoy the company of my friends, I want to laugh and go to school. I don't want to go into my in-laws' house and lead a life like my mother's. I don't want a groom." Child marriage is very high in this area.
Source: Nishtha (Kishori Bahini)
Location: 24 Parganas, West Bengal
Language: Bengali
In the area of health too, the violence of imposing coercive family planning, forcing contraceptives and banned drugs on women, became major campaign issues, as did the crime of female infanticide and foeticide which has skewed the sex ratio in many parts of the country.
Awareness Poster 04Zubaan
"This fire will have to be extinguished. Break the stranglehold of fire."
The anti-dowry campaign has focused on death by fire.
Location: Bihar
Awareness Poster 03Zubaan
"No more death by fire."
Location: Bihar
Artist: Priyanjali
Awareness Poster 02Zubaan
An anti-dowry poster.
Location: Bihar
Awareness Poster 30Zubaan
Source: Ekta Mahila Manch
Location: Ranchi, Bihar
Language: Hindi
Awareness Poster 01Zubaan
"Could this be your daughter?" An anti-dowry poster.
Provenance unknown.
Awareness Poster 25Zubaan
Source: National Commission for Women
Location: New Delhi, Delhi
Language: English
Awareness Poster 39Zubaan
An anti-dowry poster showing newspaper clippings of dowry murders, with the symbolic flame showing how so many women are killed.
Source: Swayam
Location: Kolkata, West Bengal
Language: English
Awareness Poster 18Zubaan
"Burnt to death. Indian woman."
Artist: Chandralekha
With the growth of communalism and identity-based politics in Indian society, came the new problem of the woman as a perpetrator of violence rather than only its victim. This presents a major challenge to women's groups and has been the cause of considerable rethinking and discussion on new strategies within the movement.
Awareness Poster 31Zubaan
The Mathura rape case in which two policemen were acquitted of the rape of a minor tribal girl, marked the beginning of the nationwide campaign against rape. This poster looks at what, if anything, has changed ten years after Mathura.
Source: Women and Media Committee of the Bombay Union of Journalists
Location: Mumbai, Maharashtra
Language: English
Awareness Poster 13Zubaan
This poster protests the violation of human rights in Manipur, more specifically the rape and murder of a Manipuri woman, Manorama, by the army. In an unprecedented gesture of rage and protest, twelve middle-aged Manipuri women stripped naked in front the army headquarters, shaming soldiers and officers.
Source: Jeevika Development Society
Location: Kolkata, West Bengal
Language: Bengali, English
Awareness Poster 14Zubaan
A poster depicting police brutality.
Source: Gana Unnayan Parshad
Location: Kolkata, West Bengal
Awareness Poster 26Zubaan
Protector turns oppressor.
Source: Mahila Samakhya
Location: Vadodara, Gujarat
Awareness Poster 12Zubaan
This poster grew out of an awareness campaign on sexual harassment at the workplace, following on the Vishakha judgment by which the Supreme Court issues guidelines for setting up sexual harassment committees in offices and institutions.
Source: Bailancho Saad
Location: Goa
Language: English
Artist: Sheetal Volvoikar
Awareness Poster 23Zubaan
This poster was part of an information campaign on the rape law.
Source: MARG, UNIFEM, Zonta International
Location: New Delhi, Delhi
Language: English
Awareness Poster 24Zubaan
Source: MARG, UNIFEM, Zonta International
Location: New Delhi, Delhi
Language: English
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