VideoVolunteers's Content

Strike! -Autorickshaw & Taxi strike in Mumbai

VideoVolunteers — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 13:58:33 -0700

Today I woke up at 8am - the beginning of morning peak hour in Mumbai, and for some reason I couldn’t help dozing off to the alarm and enjoying the blissful state of a mini-vacation in this chaotic city. My room faces the main road which is off the Western Express highway, and usually even with the windows shut, I can hear the beeping and thumping of cars and bikes and the plethora of autorickshaws chugging along the roads. As I gained consciousness, it hit that today there is a strike! And all the autorickshaws are parked away and abandoned..millions at a time! And all the taxis were also parked away, the bulky ancient automobiles lined up - one after the other. Though it seems like a peaceful start to the morning, once the news hit - I realised how many people, how many jobs, how much movement in this city of approximately 13 million (and probably more as so many migrants are unaccounted) has been stalled. On top of the stock market crisis, this just makes things worse.. some could say. But beyond the cribbing and fussing of most urban youngsters I know, what does this really mean? The actual reason behind the strike was a planned protest against a “planned phasing out of older vehicles and the growing numbers of private taxis in India’s financial hub”. Of some 50,000 old yellow and black non-AC taxis, about 8500 will have to be phased out by Dec. 4. This gives more way to the private companies, the AC cool cabs and all the golden opportunities available for the big corporate players of India to take over public transportation like they have already started doing within the small medium retail business! This is what the workers have to say according to Reuters India: “We are demanding that we should be given sufficient time and subsidies for the phase out of old taxis,” said A.L. Quadros, general secretary of the Mumbai Taxi Mens Union, which called for the one-day strike. Moreover, as modern India is becoming more consumer-conscious and there is an obvious growing middle class, and a rise in corporatization it is important that the Taxi drivers Union is standing up for their rights and demanding that the Government protect them and their crooked old cabs which have been monopolizing the streets of Mumbai for decades now. Thus, the Union has asked that the state of Maharashtra limit the issue of new licenses to private taxis, which the modern day commuter prefers - especially in South Mumbai, where the wealthier class live and work, and autorickshaws are not allowed to enter! Interestingly enough, on a day like today, it hit me how the city is so segregated and how each person is affected differently according to the area they live and work in. In some areas such as Thane, which is outside of Mumbai city and is considered the central suburbs, people must have struggled to get around and the local buses were jam packed. This means that on a day like today, mostly men went out and squished themselves into buses and trains.. and women were more likely to stay in and avoid the crowds of people packed in buses and trains. This also means that for the upper-class who mostly travel only by private car and chauffeur, today was just another day that blinked past them. This event not only highlights the issues of autorickshaw drivers and taxi drivers in India’s most populated city, but it also sheds some light upon the disparities of socio-economic class, gender and infrastructure. Here is a video that I’d like to highlight.. to remind people that not every autorickshaw driver is a /migrant/poor/uneducated man. And in fact, women can drive too and this job is in fact very empowering as well as a self-sustaining income and livliehood she can provide for her family. Check out this video profiling Philomena Fernandez of Mumbai!

The trials and errs of online media

VideoVolunteers — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 10:55:26 -0700

Hi there, I’d like to introduce myself, as I’m a new member of this newly formed social media network – Channel 19. What attracted me first and foremost about this online platform is that everything that is showcased and issues we focus on are about communities in rural and urban India who make their own media.

As a filmmaker and visual arts experimenter, I’m excited about working as the online manager for Channel 19 because I will be transforming the media that communities have made into media that global communities, who have access to the internet, can watch, share and take action upon. This literally means taking 30 minutes of un-subtitled DV footage with lots of man on the street interviews, reporter style soundbites and documentary footage amongst other shots, and cutting this down into 5-10 minutes worth of material which will tell the story and yet still be true to the content, as this is genuinely media produced from the bottom up.

Firstly, let me share with you what Channel 19 was created. The name, which we need to change soon, is based after Article 19 of UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It’s a project of Video Volunteers and the India-based partner NGO, Drishti Media Arts, as these NGOs have set up “community video units” with several India based NGOs and continue to create more CVUs in India and in Brazil.

The concept of a CVU is modeled around a production house that creates media for a broadcaster, which in this case, is the NGO. The online space we’ve created on Channel 19 can be viewed as a network that gathers all these shows on various issues and distributes them out to the global audiences, such as yourself.

This is somewhat the stumbling block I now face as the editor for the online content – how to make this media engaging and relevant when there is so much media out there online and from that pile, there is so much to weed through. I have about 30 films from the various six CVUs we have set up across India, and these magazine-style videos have been shown across various villages and slums across the country. When I remind myself of the impact some of these films have made – whether its getting 700 families to demand land rights, or whether its getting people to push the local government to provide them their basic amenities, it hits that if the number of views could multiply by hundreds, imagine what could happen. And this is why I believe that there is a place for this media online – and if anything, you should also have the right to weed through online media and find a story that is genuine and directly delivered from the people in poor communities here to you – wherever you may be.

So please do suggest blogs, channels, interactive platforms to share our content!

Movies Moving Mountains // Current TV

VideoVolunteers — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 05:54:35 -0700

Hi all, please check out this Current TV video about the work Video Volunteers is doing with communities and what some of the issues that arise when community producers are producing media. Do comment and feel free to share this!

Ration Shops and Corruption

VideoVolunteers — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 06:59:37 -0700

The inefficency and corruption in the Public Distribution System is exposed through this film, made by the residents of ghettos of Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India.

Water Contamination and Fluorosis in India

VideoVolunteers — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 08:52:54 -0700

An expose on a chemical plant in a village, reveals the hideous truth that the village's water source is being poisoned leading to the rampant spread of fluorosis. Through this film, the villagers demanded a water treatment plant and due to the action taken, 600 villages received safe drinking water.

Post-Monsoon Living Conditions

VideoVolunteers — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 17:03:09 -0700

During the monsoons, the roads wash out for weeks at a time and the electricity goes out. In this video villagers learn who is responsible for fixing these problems. We also see the government taking action and fixing broken roads because they were 'exposed' on camera.

Where are our doctors?

VideoVolunteers — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 13:26:39 -0700

The government doctors in the villages where Sakshi Media works were hardly ever present in the Public Health Centers. In this video, the Producers explained to villagers that the law mandates that the doctors be present on a regular basis. As a result of the screenings, the doctors started coming on time in four villages.

Slum Conditions and Government Programs in India

VideoVolunteers — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 15:15:44 -0700

Slumdwellers learn about a government program in which they can get inexpensive basic amenities like toilets and roads. Because of this film, Saath was able to expand the program into an area where residents had previously been confused and resistant about the program.

Malaria

VideoVolunteers — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 15:02:26 -0700

This film helped villagers understand, after years of bad health care, why their malaria samples came back from the doctor 'negative' when they were all clearly infected. It was because they were not being processed in time! Armed with this new information, the villagers protested at the local government offices and now understand how to hold health officials accountable.

Lets make our neighborhoods cleaner!

VideoVolunteers — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 08:37:39 -0700

Filth and garbage are huge problems in the slums, with rotting waste piling up in the roads and hardly any municipal system for collecting waste. The Community Producers request their neighbors to take more responsibility and to stop dumping their garbage right outside their doors. The video takes slum dwellers on a visual journey with a piece of garbage, showing them the huge and unsustainable landfills where their garbage ends up, and introduces them to a hard-working woman who makes her living as a rag-picker in those landfills. Many NGOs working on the issue of sanitation use the film and say it is successful in increasing meeting attendance and awareness. The government also put dumpsters in two of the major slum areas for the first time.