On October 11th, roughly a year ago today, lawyer and social activist Raj Khaira launched ‘The Pink Ladoo’ Project. It is a colourful re-invention of the Indian custom of celebrating new-borns: namely to correct the gender bias that traditionally pervades the rite of passage, and indeed the whole of South-Asian culture. “It’s something that I started thinking on when my brother was born because of the marked contrast to the reactions when my sister was received,” she told us. “I vividly recall having a conversation with my mom about how we should start a trend to help mark the birth of a girl. The campaign is pro-gender equality and encourages families to celebrate the birth of girls because we want to get the South Asian community to take ownership for the problems that South Asian women face (domestic abuse, dowry violence etc.) and to realise that the reason women face these issues is because they are seen as somehow having less value: dowry, father-to-son inheritance, the tradition of parents living with sons in old age have all worked together to create a preference for sons.”
v
Today, Raj and The Pink Ladoo team have accumulated just under 30, 000 followers on social media, as well as having been involved first-hand in several successful grass-roots campaigns in Australia, Canada and the UK. The project has been mostly – admirably – self funded, and shares the anniversary of the day designated by the UN as the International Day of the Girl Child. The special sweets being a glaring pink – with notes of raspberry and coconut – bears a greater social significance too: “to be an effective symbol of gender protest,” Raj elaborated, “the ladoo had to be simple and easy to replicate whilst simultaneously making their purpose clear; a bit of a ‘no-brainer’ if you will.” Viscerally becoming ingrained into the communal consciousness, through the very act of their giving then, Raj has found a way to not only open up a dialogue about women’s equality but also provide the remedy. The proof, as she recalled a highlight of the project, is quite literally in the pudding: when phoning up a prospective sweet shop to inquire if they wanted to participate, she found that the pink Ladoo was already their best-selling product!
Tell us a more about the motivation for the Pink Ladoo Campaign?
I’d always been aware of wanting to do it since the birth of my sister when I was twelve. The idea then resurfaced when people close to me started having girls when I was working in the city. Together with the emphasis being placed on elevating women in the workplace recently, I started to wonder what types of negative messages might be thwarting women’s confidence and the women’s rights efforts. This was really the proverbial "light bulb moment". I realized that the cultural campaign was as necessary as it had always been and there was no time like the present.
What are the ways in which your legal career has informed and helped your campaigning?
Legal training encourages you to work efficiently, think analytically, approach situations with a view to mitigating any associated risks, all the while retaining a critical eye. My legal training has helped me keep a healthy degree of caution and scepticism, which helped evade certain pitfalls in the early stages. I truly believe that without my vocational background, we wouldn't be as successful as we are today.
Could you please elaborate on the personal story behind the campaign?
I am the oldest of 3 children and there is a considerable age gap between me and my siblings - my sister are 10 and 12 years younger than me respectively. My parents never treated my sister and I differently for being girls, but it was a different story from the community and extended family. People reacted very badly when my sister was born by virtue of the fact that she was a girl. I also grew up in a gender-biased community where men and women fulfilled 'traditional' South-Asian gender roles. Men and women who broke that mould were mocked or criticised - the double standard was rife.
What are you hoping is the social impact this project will achieve?
Women won't just randomly wake up one day and feel empowered to say no to dowry, or demand equal access to education or fight for their right in the workplace, if the message they receive from the day they are born is that they are valued a little bit less than the men in their lives. Every gender biased message has an impact on young South Asian girls. We want to see the campaign evolve into something bigger: we want to create a community of empowered women and families who can say no to gender discrimination and we feel this can only happen if we elevate the status of women from birth.
You’ve had a great amount of positive feedback so far; tell us about the traction and how that’s made you feel?
Obviously gaining thousands of followers within the space of 12 months has been incredible. Initially we were flooded with stories from women who were keen to share their experience, particularly their negative experiences surrounding the birth of their daughters or the pressure to have a son. After that the response evolved into something bigger where people started sending us pictures and stories of the ways in which they had challenged other gender-biased customs. I feel elated. The purpose of this campaign was to inspire South Asians to challenge gender-bias and we’ve done that by setting an example through one powerful tradition in particular.
We are living at a time when changing the legal framework only achieves so much: we need to change the social law too don’t we?
Sometimes laws are used as a reactive mechanism to curb harmful practices, protect those who might be harmed by the practices and deter people from a particular behavior. Like anything, it is important to focus on the causes and not the symptoms. Laws are important for their deterrent and retributive capacity but to enact powerful and sustainable change it is important to get to the root causes of the issues. We believe the root causes are gender-biased traditions and customs.
Finally, do you have a life motto?
If you don't like something, change it: you will not only improve your own situation but give others in a similar position the courage to do the same.
