A young girl in a white T-shirt, jeans and scarf poses in front of a line of dresses she has designed. Another one in eye-popping pink sports a huge smile, a camera slung across her shoulders. A woman in a chef’s garb with a busy kitchen in the background. A sound studio, mike and a girl in front of it.
These are images from Bello, a fashion calendar that you can order online. It’s a rather unique calendar — the protagonists in the photos are not models or actors with photoshopped, flawless faces. These faces are disfigured due to burns caused by acid. The models are all survivors of acid attacks.
This groundbreaking initiative is one of the many Stop Acid Attacks (SAA) campaigns by Chhanv Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to the rehabilitation of acid attack survivors in India.
SAA, Bello and Sheroes are part of the worldwide fight against this form of violence against women. Earlier this year, contemporary artist and activist Alexsandro Palombo released with an illustrated series in which he depicted Disney princesses as acid attack survivors. Palombo launched the series with the hashtag #StopAcidAttack ahead of International Women’s Day on March 8.
Ad agency Ogilvy (Mumbai), along with Make Love Not Scars, has launched a campaign called Beauty Tips with Reshma — a series of videos with an acid attack survivor sharing beauty tips. Each video ends with a plea for a petition addressed to the prime minister asking for a ban on open sale of acid.
The Bello campaign is an important initiative in India, seen in the background of a report that came out in March this year — 309 acid attack cases were reported in 2014, a figure more than the total number of acid attacks on women registered between 2010 and 2013. However, this rise is probably due to better recording of attacks.
Acid is often used as a tool of vengeance by men against women, usually for rebuffing them. Data compiled by SAA shows at least five women are attacked with acid every week. Women are targeted for reasons ranging from refusing proposals and turning down advances, domestic and financial disputes.
Bello incidentally means beauty in Italian.
The calendar features 11 gutsy women — all acid attack survivors — from Haryana, Faridabad, Delhi, Ghaziabad, Bihar, Meerut, Agra and other places. There is Laxmi who has anchored a TV show. She wants to be a singer and has received the International Woman of Courage award from Michelle Obama. And Rupa who wants to be an apparel designer and has designed the clothes for all the models. Dolly wants to be a doctor. Rajwant is a photojournalist while Gita is a chef.
The calendar showcases the women and the dreams that were interrupted when they were attacked so brutally. How did the idea come about?
“Well, one of the survivors in our campaign — Rupa — designs dresses and we wanted to put up photos of her creations on Facebook,” says campaign founder Alok Dixit. “Then we thought why not use acid attack survivors instead of models. The photos we took received a huge response on Facebook. So we decided to produce an entire calendar. It was produced through crowdfunding.”
The proceeds from the sale of the calendar go towards rehabilitating survivors. This also takes them a step closer to achieving the goals and dreams they had before they were attacked. The photos showcase the dream of each survivor.
It took a fairly long time — nearly six months — to complete the shoot for the calendar as it had to be planned around reconstructive surgeries. “We had to work on their minds too,” says Dixit. “The road to recovery is full of physical and psychological challenges. They had to be convinced not to hide their faces, to be comfortable as they are. Before this, they used to give interviews with their faces covered.”
Over the months, the attitude of the survivors changed as they became more open and carefree. “It was a learning process for them as well as us. Their attitudes changed, and people’s reactions also changed gradually.”
Dixit says that the girls had to recover across multiple platforms — medical and physical. “And then they have to face society and negative attitudes. Generally protests are aimed at the government. But we decided to aim our protest at society. Most of the harassment that survivors face is from the society — they are denied jobs despite qualifications and talent; marriage is taboo; people are not comfortable around them.”
Dixit had used social media for effective campaigns against social issues earlier. Though he has a background in journalism, he did not want to work in the usual platforms. “I wanted to see how we could produce effective campaigns around issues using the internet and social media.”
“Hi! My name is Rupa, and I’m a 21-year-old acid attack survivor, now turning into an entrepreneur,” runs an introduction by the Bello’s dress designer who has been using social media and crowdfunding platforms such as Indiegogo to realise her dreams. “For me, a dream to be a designer seemed far-fetched at one time. But instead of hiding my scarred face behind a scarf, I went public and started living for my dream: to be a fashion designer.
“As a child I wanted to design clothes for the young Indian woman, but after the acid attack I was unsure and lost my courage ... The increase in demand for my creations at Sheroes is expanding my business in to the commercial market space ... Apart from showing off my clothes, I want to change the way people perceive beauty. I want to tell people to look beyond the surface, to tell them that beauty is really within a person.”
SAA doesn’t believe in funding from the government or corporate. Its innovative campaigns have successfully involved people and society — asking them to put their money behind the campaign as well as get involved to bring about change. There is always a dearth of finances, and the campaign relies on crowdsourcing platforms such as Kickstarter.com, Indiegogo.com and Bitgiving.com. “Social media is one of the most important aspects in our lives,” says Dixit. “We have been able to connect to so many people and get them involved.”
As most survivors isolate themselves after an attack, SAA tries to act as a bridge between survivors and society. Their website has many stories such as this one: “My face was used to settle scores... The face I was born with had become history — the outcome of a property dispute. I fell in love with volleyball while studying in Class VI in Rohtak. Like every day, I had started off for the volleyball court to practice that day too. As soon as I reached the Prem Nagar Chowk, two young men approached me on a motorbike. Before I could take evasive action, the pillion rider had splashed acid over me.”
SAA’s research has shown that attackers are mostly people known to survivors and the motive is generally a one-sided love affair. Although women make up the bulk of survivor, men too, are increasingly becoming victims. “The attackers do not have a criminal background — it is mostly a crime of passion. And the victims are mostly women.
The target is their face — to disfigure it. “Aapka chehra bigaad dengey [We will ruin your face]” is the most common threat.
Apart from the calendar, another success story is the small café and bookstore in Agra run by survivors, appropriately called Sheroes’ Hangout. There is a readers’ café, an activism workshop, a designer boutique and an exhibition space. The idea is to give them a space to be visible and independent.
“Most survivors are 14-15 years old. When they were attacked, they were studying, planning their careers. After an attack, a person will need four to five years to recover and survive. That means their years of education are gone, so are jobs,” he says, citing the gives the example of Laxmi who had completed a course in tailoring and as a beautician, but no one gave her a job. The reason? “Our customers will get scared”.
Sheroes has been a runaway success with acid attack survivors getting used to being visible and running things, and visitors getting used to the girls. They will complete a year in December and will soon open a second hangout space in Delhi with a survivor who is a beautician.
“The campaign has helped me believe in myself,” says Laxmi. She has learnt to show her face and raise her voice. “The best part is that it has taught us all to not fear society’s reactions and to be independent.”
Anuradha Sengupta is a writer based in Mumbai.
The Bello calendar is available for sale on www.paltan.in.
