Submitted
2020 Elevate Prize

I, A Woman, Can Achieve, Anything

Team Leader
Poonam Muttreja
About You and Your Work
Your bio:

My name is Poonam Muttreja and I am the Executive Director of Population Foundation of India(PFI). In a career spanning 40 years, I have led organizations, nationally and internationally, including as the founder of social organizations such as SRUTI, Dastkar and Ashoka Foundation. Previously I was the country director for MacArthur Foundation India. I hold a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Harvard University. 

In PFI, I co-conceived Main Kuch Bhi Kar Sakti Hoon (MKBKSH; in English: I, A Woman, Can Achieve Anything), a program to disrupt gender-biased social norms and empowerment of women. It is India’s largest entertainment-education transmedia program, powered by social and behavioral change communication (SBCC). It is a reflection of my conviction that women not only deserve better but are capable of achieving anything. To elevate them, there is a need to elevate the understanding of people and nudge behavioral and cultural shifts in society.

Project name:
I, A Woman, Can Achieve, Anything
One-line project summary:
An entertainment education (edutainment) initiative to disrupt gender-biased, harmful social norms and empowerment of women and girls.
Present your project.

PFI’s edutainment program, MKBKSH, is focused on eradicating gender inequality (violence, gender-based discrimination and deprivation of women and girls’ agency). Specifically, the challenge upon us was to make communities change the behaviors that perpetuate harmful and regressive gender norms. 

Believing that women’s empowerment is the key instrument to achieve equality and justice for all, the project we have proposed aims to transform behaviors and attitudes through a televised serial, amplified through multiple other platforms.  

MKBKSH is an embodiment for elevating humanity. It contributes to the Sustainable Development Goals, specifically goal 5, by challenging and transforming people’s attitudes, behaviors, beliefs towards women and girls, and their role in society. It provides solutions which communities identify with and are inspired to replicate. It decisively demonstrates that women’s empowerment can be achieved through the commitment, and to the benefit of the larger community.

Submit a video.
What specific problem are you solving?

We are addressing patriarchy, its manifestations in norms, attitudes, beliefs and behaviors defining gender-based discrimination in India and globally. Data indicates its pervasiveness and adverse impact on women and girls:   

  • Child sex ratio is 899 girls per 1000 boys(SRS 2018), resultant of societal-norms perpetuating the practice of gender-biased sex-selection in India.
  • 31% of women in India have never been to school. Only 14% have completed over 12 years of schooling. Early marriage forces girls to drop education.27% adolescent girls were married and 4 million became mothers(NFHS-4).Globally, 700 million adolescent girls are married and 12 million give birth each year(WHO).
  • 31% married women in India experience spousal violence.  Yet, only 14% reported it. Staggeringly, 52% of women and 42% of men believe that a husband is justified in beating his wife(NFHS-4). 35% of women worldwide experienced physical and/or intimate partner violence(UN).  
  • 30 million women in India are deprived of reproductive choices and have unmet need for family-planning(NFHS-4). 214 million women in developing regions have an unmet need for modern contraception(UN). 
  • Women’s representation is only 14.39% in Indian parliament. Women’s labor-force participation rate is as low as 21%(World Bank).  
What is your project?

MKBKSH is a televised drama that showcases the struggles and triumphs of the protagonist, Dr. Sneha, as she embarks on a journey to change attitudes and behavior in her village by tackling regressive gender norms.

The program holds up a mirror to Indian society, engaging itself with norms and practices adversely impacting the status of women, including abuse, violence, sexual and reproductive health rights, early and force marriages, unpaid-work burden and more! We have used positive deviance stories from the community to build our script to offer not only aspirations but actionable solutions to the viewers. We have amplified the messages of the TV series through field interventions, digital engagement, radio, interactive voice response system (IVRS) and a Chatbot called SnehAI (enabled by artificial intelligence-AI). We use diverse platforms preferred and used by different audiences to ensure that we reach the last mile and give viewers the opportunity to contribute and feel they are part of this transformational change! 

Launched in 2014, telecast across 183 episodes MKBSKH has reached more than 140 million people (400 million, counting the repeat telecasts) with documented impact. 

Who does your project serve, and in what ways is the project impacting their lives?

We work with Indian communities to challenge deep-seated patriarchal norms prohibiting women from making choices. We therefore work, not only with women and girls but with men, boys, traditional authority, mothers-in-law and myriads of gatekeepers, essentially targeting the community’s gender-biased attitudes and behaviors toward women.

From the very beginning, we wanted MKBKSH to be relatable and influential. The story and characters had to emerge from the community, as transformative change can only be brought from within. For this, we embarked on a formative research and positive deviance enquiry to understand community needs, insights and wisdom to deal with regressive social-norms. These were led by Dr. Arvind Singhal, a global authority on edutainment and his research team. 

We also wanted continued engagement with communities to support the effective execution of the program and to empower them with knowledge and tools for bringing about effective behavior change. We leveraged the expansive mobile-phone penetration and increased popularity of social media, especially among young people to introduce the IVRS and an AI-powered Chatbot: SnehAI. These two mediums have expanded scope of engagement with the communities, improving their knowledge, attitudes and behavior, while also giving them, especially less privileged audience members a voice.  

Which dimension of The Elevate Prize does your project most closely address?
  • Elevating understanding of and between people through changing people’s attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors
Explain how your project relates to The Elevate Prize and your selected dimension.

“I, A Woman, can Achieve Anything” epitomizes elevating and transforming societies. We cannot improve our world without changing social norms. We, as a community, rarely think of change – especially when the status quo has been working well for the majority. We all need nudges to leave our comfort zones, even for the better. This is what our program was created for. The edutainment approach is radically different from those that we, and others, had been deploying. It has taken  MKBKSH to a dramatic scale and elevated understandings of and between people by changing people’s attitudes, beliefs and behaviors.

How did you come up with your project?

I want every girl and woman to feel she can achieve anything. My exposure to the community, their needs and then seeing the social-landscape of forty years, convinced me that we had been unsuccessful in changing the lives of people as we had not changed social norms. Without this, people will be reluctant to change their behavior.

Our past experience using short films to communicate behavior change confirmed that people would be more inclined to discuss sensitive issues if they could relate to the messages. As television continues to be a powerful means of mass communication across India, we decided to make a television series that would raise awareness on vital gender issues.

We spent a year understanding social-norm change through global evidence on edutainment with a team of experts including the program’s creative director. We ideated, iterated and co-constructed a vision, story and creative details, enabling the program’s genesis, posed on the belief that edutainment influences positive behavior. 

The program took shape as MKBKSH. The story of an empowered woman, the protagonist, who gets past the socio-cultural and gender barriers to demonstrate why social change is important, not just for women, but men and society as a whole.

Why are you passionate about your project?

When I began my career, I was an advocate in changing circumstances of women through education and skill building. However, as the years went by, my perception changed, as I realized that biases against women and the social norms that determine the same did not allow a level playing field.  Regressive social norms prevent women’s mobility and freedom of choice. This led me to work on changing the narrative by changing social norms. Initially, the challenge was to find a way to deliver positive messages to millions across the country in a non-threatening manner – and the solution to it came with MKBKSH. 

I have witnessed the metamorphic strength of storytelling using entertaining content and the impact it has created. Inspired by the series, as more people in the audience willingly inculcate novel behaviors in their daily lives, the norms across communities begin to shift, creating a new normal. Although we still have miles to go, I am convinced of edutainment as a tool for social transformation. I may sound like a dreamer, but I have a concrete vision and I hope to see the day when every girl and woman believes that she can achieve anything.

Why are you well-positioned to deliver this project?

I have forty years of experience in the development sector across community, national and international levels. Moreover, working with national and global governments, their policy think-tanks, bilateral and UN organizations made me look at local issues from a global perspective. With my colleagues in PFI, I have harnessed my experience and commitment towards women’s rights, which is at the center of our work. This gives us a unique position to demonstrate the far reaching impact of women’s empowerment, nationally and globally.

I have pushed our boundaries to create a radical shift in our programs- transitioning from awareness on family planning to empowerment of women and girls from their rights’ perspective. This is critical for women to exercise their agency to make choices in all spheres of their lives. We have worked with multiple actors including government bodies, celebrities, donors and other partners to deliver projects that uniquely address women’s rights including a large celebrity campaign called Bas Ab Bohut Ho Gaya (Enough is Enough) that called young people to action to eliminate violence against women. 

Ending discrimination against women and girls is a global struggle. We need to display a sense of urgency in addressing women’s rights-it must be made visible in the most powerful way– edutainment has offered that canvass with the right blend of content and creativity. Today, we have seen a cumulative reach of 400 million viewers of MKBKSH, yet I remain restless, as gender inequality has to become history, we have tolerated it for centuries.  

Provide an example of your ability to overcome adversity.

Unlike in the past, the 2019 General elections in India were held in seven phases, lasting ten weeks (including-the Model code-of-conduct), making it the longest lower house elections in India. While the norm, the protracted nature of these elections were unprecedented and thus unanticipated by all. Given that we work with Doordarshan, a government broadcasting body, work during MKBKSH Season 3 was postponed. Additionally, we knew that viewership would be uncertain as India was wrapped in the political scenario unfolding before them.

I see every adversity as an opportunity, not only to learn but to reinvent. We had a commitment to Doordarshan to cover that time, so we made a month and half of content using old materials. This itself was a huge challenge as the finances, program plans, production, evaluation and monitoring had to be shifted. In a short amount of time, I got everyone on board including the production team, the governing board and donors. 

Additionally, unlike previous seasons, Doordarshan was unable to give us prime-time to telecast MKBKSH. We persevered with our negotiations and ensured that MKBKSH was not only telecast at 9:30 PM on weekend nights but those episodes were re-telecast on Monday and Tuesday mornings.

Describe a past experience that demonstrates your leadership ability.

As a leader, I believe that every goal approached with conviction can be achieved.

I was eighteen when I started my journey in the development sector. It was unbearable to read about caste-discrimination and untouchability throughout my schooling. I found that those considered ‘untouchable’ or low caste were those who produced material with their hands; the artisans. At this time, machine-made goods had completely eliminated the market for artisans and I was convinced that I could get that space back. I spent five years travelling to villages visiting artisans and NGOs throughout the country and learnt that people were completely unaware of the presence of such creative people. To correct this, I began product development and market management and held my first “craft bazaar” in 1978. However, my goal was not yet achieved. I wanted to create a federation of artisans and through that, Dastkar was born. Using this platform to carry out marketing, I called artisans from across India to demonstrate their craft and sell their products. I further convinced the government to buy from these artisans and eliminate the middle men. Within three years of launching Dastkar, the government started different bazaars and my vision was scaled up. 

How long have you been working on your project?
We have been working on MKBKSH for over 6 years
Where are you headquartered?
Delhi, India
What type of organization is your project?
  • Nonprofit
If you selected Other, please explain here.

N/A

More About Your Work
Your Business Model & Funding
The Prize
Solution Team:
Poonam  Muttreja
Poonam Muttreja