THE LEGACY OF AMANAT

FIRST EVENT January 27, 2013

The Legacy of Amanat Making a Difference Together We Can

This is an initiative that started out from a germ of an idea sparked by the latest in a string of horrific assaults against women in India. On December 16 2012, Amanat, a young 23 year old woman, with a promising future was brutally attacked, violated and murdered. India and the world was shocked, enraged, and traumatized by this incident. In a society, where victim-blaming is the norm in such cases, Indians from all over the country and world came together as one, demanding the basic human right for women to be able to lead their lives fearlessly and with respect; that blame be placed solely and wholly on the perpetrators of such crimes ; that justice be swift and proportional to the magnitude of their appalling act; that the victims of these crimes get full empathy, compassion and support of society to recover from the brutality of these attacks. It was evident that we need sweeping change of a high order of magnitude across various entities like government, courts, police, and most importantly society. While the ordinary Indian living in India, himself faced a challenge in being able to influence such large-scale change swiftly, Indians overseas feel even more severely handicapped in being able to make any sort of difference. These Indians have strong emotional, familial and business ties with their motherland and feel extremely unfortunate that they are ineffective in concretely contributing to that change. The Legacy of Amanat aims to fuel that yearning to make a difference. To that end, we had our first event Making a Difference Together We Can on Sunday, January 27, 2013. The idea was to focus on possibilities and what we could do and actively disallow conversations centering on describing the existing difficulties. We needed a process that compelled us to move forward all the time. The powerful strengths-based approach of Appreciative Inquiry (AI), in which I am a trained and certified facilitator, was perfect for this purpose. Twelve people turned up to the call for making a difference - 12 determined and inherently positive people, who simply trusted in themselves and in the process to articulate action ideas by the end. We began the AI by sharing our past experiences of success in two specific areas: 1. Stories where respect for women was the underlying theme 2. Stories where a group of people physically away from their community or nation still managed to make a difference there. All participants, without exception, reported feelings of inspiration, hope, making connections and above all positivity just through relating and listening to these stories. Some of the stories were truly inspirational and we all instinctively knew that we could create more of such experiences. View some of the pictures of the event here. As this was a first meeting, the duration was only 2 hours, and we stopped here. The objective was to introduce the group to the process and to gain their support for it. In this we were wildly successful. It is fairly common, after an AI, to have people volunteering to take responsibility for action plans that emanate. But to have people volunteer enthusiastically and proactively at the end of an incomplete AI was the most delightful outcome. Two of the participants recognizing that I did not have the requisite marketing skills (given that I could persuade only 12 to actually show up) to ensure a good turnout volunteered to handle this responsibility for future events. They also offered to organize the next event. My heartfelt gratitude to you Sarbani Bhattacharya & Anuradha Kashi.

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The Legacy of Amanat Making a Difference Together We Can

Every single one of them knew theyd be back for the next meeting and also felt equipped to recruit more people for future events, having gained a profound understanding of not just what they wanted to accomplish together, but more importantly, how they could do so. Gauri Shrivastava, a participant, summed it up perfectly, I had no 'solutions' or bright ideas when I came for the meeting. But when I went back, I had the confidence that even someone as ordinary as me could contribute and together as a group that contribution of ideas could grow and who knows- change the world? But theres more. Hearing an account of what we were doing here, sparked off an action idea in Kripa Sagar, India. She has opened discussions with an educational institution there to start a Gender Sensitivity program, which will touch every single student of that institution. Bit by bit, one by one, were already making a difference; the change is happening. Together we can! So we now invite you to join us for our next event, to contribute in making a real difference in India, right from our chosen home in Singapore or elsewhere in the world. Like us on Facebook and watch the page for the announcement.

Kiran Kandade, Singapore Please send your comments, feedback to me at kirankandade@gmail.com or by posting on The Legacy of Amanat page.

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