After two and a half years of the pandemic, 2022 saw a transition into the ‘new normal’ as well as the emergence of changing narratives and newer challenges.
As the year brings itself to a close, we want to reflect on the setbacks but also take a moment to celebrate the wins and hard work that got us one step closer to our mission! Let’s look back at the year that was.
We started the year on a great note by winning three Orange Flower Awards presented by Women’s Web!
FII’s Digital Editor Aishwaryaa Kunwar was recognized in the Best #ReelWithACause category for her video on ‘How music influences gender-based violence’. FII’s writer Abhinaya Sridhar won the Orange Flower Award for her article on ‘How Family Vlogging Invisibilizes Children’s Consent‘ in the Writing on Parenting category and Gayatri Yadav secured the runner-up position for their article on pink tax on women’s products in Hindi.
FII’s Staff Writer Sudipta Das won the 2021 SCARF Media for Mental Health Award for excellence in reporting on mental health.
Our Founder-CEO Japleen Pasricha was selected for Acumen India Fellowship’22 and the Level Up program by 91Springboard and Google for Startups. It’s a training and mentorship program for women entrepreneurs who have tech or tech-enabled start-ups.
FII’s team won seven Laadli Media Awards for Gender Sensitivity 2021 for our videos and feminist articles on gender issues in both English and Hindi.
Editorial
This year, the English editorial published 950 articles. The team also announced a new editorial vertical Being Feminist; a fortnightly column that featured personal narratives about the conflicts of being a feminist. We maintained our intersectional, non-appropriation policy and we were able to amplify voices from across strata.
The Hindi Editorial published 648 articles in total. Our writer’s community has seen significant, enriching growth which we cannot be more grateful for!
FII Hindi released a research report on How Hindi Media Covers Gender-based Violence. The report takes a critical look at the language media chooses to employ while reporting gender-based violence and explores ways to be more sensitive.
FII Hindi’s Managing Editor Ritika was invited to be on a Panel of Khabar Lahariya for 16 days of activism against GBV.
Multiple writers across both English and Hindi publications also won 7 prestigious Laadli Media Awards for Gender Sensitivity in 2022.
We launched our new websites this year with a fresh, neater, and cleaner look! The new English and Hindi websites have been designed keeping in mind, easy user navigation and minimum load time.
Multimedia
In 2022, FII’s online community grew significantly across social media and YouTube. Our YouTube community in particular is rapidly progressing. We have published close to 100 videos across English and Hindi Youtube channels.
We did a bilingual video series on Understanding the basis of Comprehensive Sexuality Education and how it interacts with ideas of sex, sexuality and consent in India. Our explainer videos on Marital Rape and Abortion performed really well on YouTube.
Our former Multimedia Editor Nishtha Shanti bagged the Jury Appreciation citation at the Laadli Media and Advertising Award for Gender Sensitivity, 2022 for her video on Let’s talk about online Harassment of women journalists and Queer and Trans Representation in our films.
2022 was about accepting new challenges and we did three podcast projects in the year!
The Women and Work: Why it Matters! podcast saw its completion in March. The podcast was done in collaboration with International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) and Feminism In India. In this podcast we talked about all things women and work – why do women work, why does women’s work matter, and what’s all this talk about paid and unpaid work?
We also did yet another collaboration podcast with the Swedish Institute Advocacy, Passion & Beyond: Voices from the SI Leader Lab. Hosted by our Founder-CEO Japleen Pasricha, this podcast explored various ways in which activists have taken on the challenge and used digital tools to continue doing their work. We spoke to leaders and activists across Eastern Europe, South Asia, and the MENA region, to understand the challenges they have faced in the past years and how they have worked around the limitations to continue the fight for social justice.
This year we also welcomed the third season of FII’s flagship podcast ‘Intersectional Feminism—Desi Style!‘, where we look to explore the nuances of gender at the workplace speaking with women/trans and queer individuals from different fields like journalism, politics, social work, sports, business and so much more. Hosts Shriya Roy and Sukanya Shaji have had the pleasure to speak with some amazing guests including Leeza Mangaldas, Radhika Vaz, Manasi Joshi, Mitali Mukherjee among a host of others.
Campaigns and Collaborations
At FII, we understand the value of partnerships in amplifying the voices of people across the country and the globe. In 2022, we created a Partnerships Team, that could cater to all kinds of organisations and brands that are working towards issues of feminist relevance so, we could add our bit to their mission!
One of the many things that gender minorities have undergone for centuries is the absence of proper sexual and reproductive awareness. Therefore, we collaborated with International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) to create awareness about sexual and reproductive healthcare and also how women can take charge of their sexual wellness through assisted self-care. We did a series of social media content, posts and reels and bridged the gap between access and knowledge about sexual and reproductive rights in South Asia.
Besides this, we also talked about women’s pleasure and partnered with brands like MyMuse and The Sassiest to break the taboo around sexual pleasure for women.
We also did a three-month-long campaign with The Missing Organisation where we talked about the digital well-being of adolescents and how young adults can steer clear of digital scams, phishing and harassment. Through this campaign, we also spoke to parents about ‘sharenting’ and how to share one’s kids photos and videos mindfully. We did this campaign in both English and Hindi.
Our core value at Feminism In India lies in intersectionality. Along the lines of which, we collaborated with brands working on the grassroots like Asan and WearEqual to understand period poverty in rural areas and the stigmas related to undergarments which become a big factor contributing to existing diseases and death among young girls and women.
We also partnered with a digital health clinic Proactive For Her to create awareness around cervical cancer, how HPV vaccinations can prevent it and the less talked about issue of vaginismus.
Workshops
Throughout the year, we organised workshops for FII’s members on topics like PCOS, Healthy Eating, Mental Health at the Workplace, and Financial Management among others. These sessions were undertaken by industry experts and helped our team and members extensively. You can also become an FII member by clicking here.
Social Media
All through the year, we have published intersectional content on our social media platforms to create feminist sensibility on the internet – one post at a time! Our videos on the contribution of women leaders in drafting India’s Constitution and freedom fighters from North-East India were widely shared and we are proud to have used our platform to highlight narratives that usually don’t find a space in our history textbooks.
The FII community grew substantially, with now over 13,500 subscribers on YouTube, over 89,000 followers on Facebook, 54,000 followers on Twitter, over 170,000 followers on Instagram, over 12,000 followers on LinkedIn and 3,100 followers on our Telegram channel.
We are warmed and encouraged by the support the FII community consistently shows us. If you have ever interacted with our content or shared it ahead, this one’s for you – Thank you!
Also read: FII’s Year In Review 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014.
