Richa Chadha campaigns against rising domestic violence and mental health issues

Richa, an advisory board member of WIFT India, headlined the campaign - that focuses on not tolerating any form of abuse - which featured several artists including Kalki Koechlin, Amyra Dastur, Mallika Dua, Pulkit Samrat, Adil Hussain.

In an effort to join forces and make an all-encompassing campaign to combat and address the sharp rise of domestic violence and mental health issues during lockdown, Bollywood and theatre celebrities came together in a video put together by Women in Films and Television India, to reiterate why no one shouldn’t tolerate any form of abuse.

Richa Chadha

The campaign takes stock of the issues borne out of vulnerable mental health caused by the lockdown. Richa, an advisory board member of WIFT India, headlined the campaign which featured several artists including Kalki Koechlin, Amyra Dastur, Mallika Dua, Pulkit Samrat, Adil Hussain.

As videos of celebrities washing dishes, cooking have gone viral in the last few months, here the artistes speak about how they have divided the chores of the house between themselves and their partner. For instance, Kalki can be seen talking about how she made breakfast while her partner took their dog for a walk; Adil speaking in his native language, Assamese, discusses how he enjoys cooking. The video was circulated widely on social media and included voices from all over the country.

Richa says, “The agenda of the video was to highlight the emotional stress people are going through and how that often leads to several things including domestic violence. This is a problem across the world and a campaign like this effectively speaks to a wide audience. Women could possibly be trapped and locked down at home unable to muster the courage to report crimes against them. The elderly could be feeling particularly hopeless in such situation. We urge anyone going through trauma to take to counselling on the helpline numbers available.”

With many celebrities talking in their mother tongues, the video attempts to reach a pan India audience. As more and more celebrities are talking about the need to create a well rounded campaign to combat these issues, Richa feels this video is a major step in the right direction. She adds, “India is diverse, fragmented society so if a message has to reach everyone, it has to be done in multiple languages. Involving artistes of different states was consciously done to be able to create a larger impact and reach everyone across different cultural and socio-economic stratus. People should be able to understand the language to absorb the message.”