We are pleased to co-sponsor this important discussion on gender violence in South Asia, featuring Kavita Krishnan, Sudha Shetty, and our own Executive Director, Krishanti Dharmaraj.
Reclaiming Rights – Challenging Gender-based violence in South Asia beyond Delhi and Mumbai: A Panel Discussion featuring Kavita Krishnan, Sudha Shetty and Krishanti Dharmaraj
Panel Discussion | September 25 | 6-8 p.m. | IDEX, Suite 250
333 Valencia Street, San Francisco, CA 94103-3547
Kavita Krishnan, Secretary, All India Progressive Women Association; Sudha Shetty, Assistant Dean, International Partnerships and Alliances, Goldman School of Public Policy; Krishanti Dharmaraj, Executive Director, International Action Network for Gender Equity and Law (IANGEL)
Preeti Shekar
Institute for South Asia Studies, International Development Exchange (IDEX), Global Fund for Women, Alliance for South Asians Taking Action (ASATA), International Action Network for Gender Equity and Law (IANGEL), Maitri
The Delhi and Mumbai gangrapes have garnered critical public attention, outrage and mobilising in India and beyond. But these are just two incidents in a larger patriarchal context where rapes, harassment, violence happen routinely across big and small cities, rural and urban areas. We need to dialogue, build solidarity and work together to challenge structures that perpetuate and enable sexual violence – from the everyday street harassment to brutal gang rapes. The discussion hopes to surface vital analysis and workable solutions that we need to to shift the current paradigm that normalizes violence.
This event is also in tribute to the incredibly inspiring life and work of renowned Sri Lankan human rights activist Sunila Abeysekara, who passed away earlier this month on Sep. 9.
About the Panelists
Kavita Krishnan – is Secretary of the All India Progressive Women’s Association (AIPWA), a women’s group that is especially active among women workers, agricultural laborers, and other sections of poor laboring women in rural and urban India. The AIPWA has a record of resistance against feudal violence on women and state repression against women. Kavita has also been a student activist, helping to organize women students on many campuses to demand mechanisms against sexual harassment. Kavita is also editor of ‘Liberation’, the monthly publication of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist).
Sudha Shetty – is the the Assistant Dean for International Partnerships and Alliances at the Goldman School of Public Policy. For the past five years she has served as the Director of the International Fellowship Program and a graduate faculty at the University of Minnesota’s Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs where she managed Fulbright’s, Muskie, Bolashak and Govt. of India Fellows; developed and implemented trainings for these emerging international leaders in the areas of strategic planning, policy development, leadership development, media and communications created partnership with Hennepin County and engaged the directors and department heads as mentors for the Fellows. Ms. Shetty speaks and writes extensively on domestic violence issues facing immigrant women and women of color. She has been a consultant to the law firm of Dorsey & Whitney, L.L.P. on diversity issues and in her former role as Director of the Seattle University Law School’s Access to Justice Institute she developed a variety of legal access projects focused on battered women. She was honored by the Washington Women Lawyers Foundation for her work with underserved communities. Ms. Shetty has been the recipient of several awards – 2005 King County Washington Women Lawyers – Special Contributions to the Judiciary Award; 2005 NALP (National Association of Law School Placements – Award of Distinction in Pro Bono and Public Service; 2003 Asian Bar Association of Washington – Community Service Award; 2003 PSLawNet – the Pro Bono Publico Award; 2004 AALS (American Association of Law Schools) – Father Drinan Award for forwarding the ethic of pro bono and public service in law schools through personal service, program design and management. She was the 2005 Section Chair of The American Associations of Law Schools Pro Bono Public and Public Interest Section. She was a founding member and chair of Chaya, a grass-roots South Asian domestic violence prevention program in Seattle. She was a 1999 fellow of the Asian Pacific Women’s Leadership Institute. Ms. Shetty received a Bachelors Degree in Sociology and Psychology from Sophia College in Bombay, India, and a Juris Doctor from the University of Bombay, India.
Krishanti Dharmaraj – is the Founder and CEO of Dignity Index Fund – a new fund set up to provide resources to South Asia to advance the leadership of women and utilize the Dignity Index to reduce discrimination and violence. Previously she was Principal of the SamasaMdhi Initiative, focusing on realizing a just and equitable world through the progressive measurement of human rights. SamasaMdhi refers to “peace on equal terms”. She is also the co–founder of Children’s Fund for Peace, an organization providing resources to children affected by armed conflict in South Asia. Ms. Dharmaraj is the former founding Executive Director of Women’s Institute for Leadership Development for Human Rights (WILD for Human Rights). Ms. Dharmaraj develops strategies to impact public policy by utilizing international human rights treaties and through grassroots advocacy. With her leadership, San Francisco became the first city in the United States to pass legislation implementing an international human rights treaty—the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Ms. Dharmaraj also helped initiate the US Human Rights Network, the US NGO Steering Committee to the World Conference Against Racism (2001) and the Women’s Human Rights Caucus for WCAR, and co–founded the Sri Lanka Children’s Fund to support children affected by the tsunami and civil war in Sri Lanka.
Event moderated by
Preeti Shekar – Former Executive Director at Narika, Preeti Shekar holds a double Masters degree in Journalism and in Women’s Studies. Preeti has previously worked with the Global Fund for Women for four years, as part of their communications team. She has served on the board of Media Alliance, and has been an Advisory member of Women, Action and Media (WAM), a Cambridge-based group committed to increase women’s positive representation in US media. Preeti is also a radio producer and works on two radio shows on KPFA 94.1 FM (Pacifica Radio), focused on increasing the voices of women of color and the Asian Pacific Islander communities. Her radio work prioritizes the voices and perspectives of marginalized voices, in the Bay Area and those in the global south.