Bell Bajao: Ringing the bell to stop violence in India
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“Bell Bajao” (Ring the Bell) was one such campaign that tried to change people’s attitudes towards domestic violence in their neighbourhoods. The campaign fittingly showed that such a crime can be stopped in its tracks by simply ringing the doorbell or speaking out.
The campaign targeted men and boys to engage them and make them play a more proactive role to prevent domestic violence. The awareness and intervention campaign was funded by UN Women and implemented by Breakthrough Trust.
Bell Bajao! has reached more than 130 million people through television, radio and print ads along with community awareness programmes across the country. Besides 6 advertisements that were aired on all major TV channels, the campaigns also featured a mobile video van that travelled to three states in India – Karnataka, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.
The mobile van activity was supported by interviews and views from various men, celebrities and otherwise, for the ‘Bell Bajao-Champion Voices’ initiative. The Champions were mostly eminent men and boys from various walks of life who are seen as great role models capable of inspiring change. In four districts of Karnataka, the video van activities helped to reach out to over 5.5 million people. A quote by Breakthrough on the campaign states: “The vans are an attempt to engage the public in a dialogue on domestic violence, a topic that nobody wants to acknowledge” says Sonali Khan, Communications Director, Breakthrough.
“The video van will promote helpline numbers 103 and 1298. The van will have an engaging emcee, an audio visual appeal, street theatre group, interactive gender bender games, as well as celebratory champion voices and pamphlets,” added Khan.
The campaign went on to win a coveted award in the Film Lions category of the Cannes Advertising Festival. The award-winning advertisement, titled The Bus Driver, was based on a real-life incident in the Aurangabad district of Maharashtra where a bus driver refused to play a passive role as a woman was beaten up by her husband.
Congratulating Breakthrough and Ogilvy and Mather, UN Women’s South Asia Regional Programme Director Anne Stenhammer said: “With this award, it is clear that domestic violence remains an urgent issue. The Bell Bajao campaign put the spotlight firmly on the issue of domestic violence and the role of boys and men in preventing it.”
Besides this, 23 workshops and public education activities were conducted with 575 staff and members of NGO, CBO and the positive people’s network in Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh to enhance their understanding of the issue.
Videos of the campaign can be seen here Visit the blog at www.bellbajao.org