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May 3,
2002
Alumna
Activist Uses Music Videos to Spread Human-Rights Messages
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Photo: Fred Leblanc
Mallika
Dutt '83
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Mallika Dutt '83 is
well versed in the theory of human rights but she knows that theory
rarely touches people personally. That's why this veteran of the
human-rights struggle has embraced popular culture and produces
music videos rather than pounding the lecture circuit. Dutt, whose
"activist voice found a language at MHC," according
to Devaki Nambiar '02, gave a talk titled "Visions for Human
Rights in the Twenty-First Century" to a mostly student audience
April 25.
For nearly two decades,
Dutt has worked on human-rights issues from dowry deaths and domestic
violence to forced prostitution. Last year, she founded Breakthrough
to "mainstream human justice" and "get the general
public to engage with issues of violence, discrimination, and
oppression." The New York- and New Delhi-based organization
uses the mass media to educate people about human rights without
lecturing. Breakthrough's music videos strike an emotional chord;
any viewer can grasp whose rights are being violated and what
can be done about oppression.
The video Babul
(colloquial Hindi for "Daddy") shows a South Asian girl
wandering around a grownups' party. As she sees the smiling upper-class
couples seemingly enjoying themselves, she somehow also knows
of each woman's secret pain. We see one slapped by a man; another
is pushed to the ground and raped by her husband. The girl sings,
"Father, my heart is afraid," and begs him to choose
as her future husband an ironsmith "who will melt my chains."
The video speaks eloquently of the need for female solidarity
and support and of the roles men can play in continuing or ending
female oppression.
In Babul, issues
of human dignity come to life. And although the setting is clearly
South Asian, the experiences are universal. Since Babul
doesn't solve the problem, one could get bogged down in a litany
of unaddressed oppression. But Dutt stresses, "We must not
define our being only in terms of how we are victimized. If we
do, we can't imagine a world that's different. We have to start
thinking of a vision of where we want to be and where we want
to go."
Women's dreams are
the driving force behind Breakthrough's award-winning CD Mann
ke Manjeeré ("Rhythms of the Mind"), from which
Dutt screened the video of the title track. Unlike Babul's
somber tone, Mann ke Manjeeré is a rousing celebration
of female freedom. "My mind has begun to play its own rhythm
today," sings a South Asian woman. "I have begun to
believe in myself." We see her swing into the driver's seat
of her heavy-duty truck, young daughter in tow. As they drive,
we see images from the woman's past, of her crying and cowering
in an abusive marriage. Now free and independent, she stops the
truck to gather other women for a roadside party, where women
of all ages dance joyfully.
Whether debating theory
or enjoying Breakthrough's videos, Dutt hopes people will expand
their view of what constitutes human rights. In legal circles,
only those—usually men—who have been oppressed by a
government are considered human-rights victims. That definition
"ignores the experiences of half the human race," she
argues, since women are more likely to have their rights violated
by family members, employers, and other nongovernmental bodies.
For many women, she says, "family is the site of violence
throughout the life cycle." Dutt cited practices in some
South Asian families that include selective abortion, female infanticide,
dowry, and toleration of spousal abuse.
As people realize
that all human rights are equally important, Dutt says, "those
who have been oppressed and silenced for centuries find their
voices." She urged her audience to fight for human rights.
"You don't have to go work for the United Nations, and you
can be located anywhere. We must all become agents to building
human-rights culture as we go forward."
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