AG

About Me

I am a Communications Specialist based out of Chennai, passionate about using the tools of digital storytelling to spark social change. My interests lie in media representation of gender, sexual and reproductive health and rights and in making basic feminist theory accessible.
 
I started my career at the digital feminist platform Feminism in India, where as the first and the longest-running employee, I helped build the platform into one of India's largest feminist media platforms. As Campaign Lead, I directed over twenty digital advocacy campaigns on various issues under the feminist umbrella, of which six have won awards like the Social Empowerment For Empowerment Awards and the Laadli Awards for Social Change.
 
I am also a part of various global youth networks, as a Women Deliver Young Leader, an ASAP Youth Champion and a member of the Youth Coalition for Sexual and Reproductive Rights, where I currently serve as the Co-Chair of the Thought Leadership Working Group.

I have done freelance projects for several organisations, such as World YWCA, IYAFP, UNAIDS, Oxfam India and Point of View. I am now currently working as the Communications and Engagement Manager at Transform Health, a global coalition of organisations advocating the role of digital technologies in achieving Universal Health Coverage by 2020. 

Over the course of three and a half years as the Campaign Lead at Feminism in India, I conceptualised, directed and executed over twenty digital advocacy campaigns on a variety of issues under the feminist umbrella, online violence against women, abortion rights, navigating consent & rejection, etc. These campaigns have gained wide traction on the internet, some having a reach of over two million. I have worked with clients that are both non-profits as well as corporate brands, including Oxfam India, World YWCA, High Commission of Canada, Tinder and PUMA. Four of my campaigns won the Social Media 4 Empowerment Awards and Laadli Media & Advertisements Awards for Gender Sensitivity. I have also freelanced with several organisations on campaigns, and currently work at Transform Health. Below, I am sharing some of the projects that I believe represents the best of my work.

Digital Health Week with Transform Health

As the Communication and Engagement Manager at Transform Health, I've worked closely with my team to create our flagship moment – the inaugural Digital Health Week: a global moment to champion digital health for universal health coverage – in which over 150 organisations from around the world are participating.

I have managed the creation of a website, mailing list, social media, outreach and organising participant information for Digital Health Week, as well as been involved in the planning and conceptualisation of the Week itself. 

The #GBVinMedia Toolkit​ with FII

While at FII, I wrote and published a toolkit for journalists to report gender-based violence sensitively, and then designed a host of advocacy activities to disseminate its findings, including workshops with media students, a crowdsourced art campaign to curate ethical imagery, as well as a larger digital advocacy campaign highlighting ethical journalism standards.

#EmpowermentNotAge Campaign with Oxfam India

I worked alongside Oxfam India's Gender Justice Team on the #EmpowermentNotAge Campaign that interrogated the need to change the minimum legal age of marriage for girls from 18 to 21 – commonly viewed as a progressive move. Using posters, social media engagement, articles and partnerships with media platforms, we highlighted credible research to illustrate why this was counterproductive to the empowerment of women. We also campaigned Members of Parliament through email campaigns and outreach to contest the issue at the governmental level. As of now, the policy has been stalled with no further updates. 

#EqualOnline Campaign with POV Mumbai

#EqualOnline was a digital advocacy campaign that I worked on for Point of View Mumbai, which sought to explore the digital lives, bodies and freedoms of women, trans and non-binary people. It aimed to increase awareness about how people occupying marginalised identities had experiences with the internet that were often left out of mainstream discourse, which had significant impacts on their access, expression, freedom, safety and mental health.

It did this through posters, videos, stories and engagement on social media, including a Twitter Spaces conversation that brought together eight powerful women, trans and non-binary people who spoke candidly about their experiences online, and the challenges they faced, including Swara Bhasker, a famous Bollywood actress known for her fearless voice online and the violence she endures because of it. 

#MyGynaecStory Campaign

The Health Over Stigma campaign by Haiyya looked at the stigma faced by unmarried women at the gynaecologist. They collaborated with FII for the online leg of the campaign, called #MyGynaecStory. Over the course of six months, we shared over 260 such stories of women who reached out on social media of their stories and experiences.

#AbortionMeraHaq Campaign with FII

FII collaborated with Asia Safe Abortion Partnership to host the #AbortionMeraHaq campaign on safe abortion. This campaign featured 40 posters, 17 articles, 2 videos, and continuous social media engagement, all in the course of one month. As Campaign Lead, I innovated the strategy and created and disseminated all the content for this successful campaign.

Talks

This section contains a curated selection of the talks and workshops I have given at various events, seminars and conferences over the years, as well as workshops I have attended as a participant.

Articles

A selection of articles that I've written and published at Feminism in India. 

In The Media

This is a selection of media that I have been featured in. Click on the boxes to be redirected to the full article/video/podcast.

Contact

Email: asmitaghosh18@gmail.com