Geographies of Breast Cancer: Awareness and Advocacy in South Asia

 A recent op-ed written by famous actress Angeline Jolie about her decision to undergo a double mastectomy to prevent a future likelihood of breast cancer has generated discussion about all aspects of Breast cancer.  At one hand, it celebrates another milestone that science has achieved while at the other, it showcases the amount of resources a rich Western woman has at her disposal, to be proactive about the prevention of a deadly disease even before the diagnosis. Through this blogpost, I would like to throw some light on the increasing rates of Breast cancer in South Asia and the constraints of civil society in battling with it.

South Asia includes countries like Pakistan, India and SriLanka. A bird’s eye view of the Breast cancer situation in these countries paints a very deplorable picture. Pakistan has the highest rate of Breast cancer in all of Asia and 40,000 women die each year due to this disease. India, on the other hand, also has almost the same number of casualties  and is a place where 50% of the women diagnosed with Breast cancer have already reached final stage. Breast cancer is the highest cause of death in women aged 24 and above in SriLanka.

In these countries, the rich always have the monetary resources to pursue treatment in expensive healthcare facilities in developed countries.  It is the poor women who suffer the most and ironically are the most likely victims of the disease.  Often times, they only seek help when it is too late due to economic reasons.  The social stigma attached to the reproductive body parts of a female makes it even harder to bring this topic out in the public for any intelligent dialogue. 

An Urdu Advertisment from Pakistan urging women under 40 to get regular check-ups and women for 40 to get screened once a year.

One of the reasons why it is such a big issue is lack of information and stigmas surrounding the disease. Poverty, language barriers and the social taboos are also some issues which hinder the discussion. Mostly the diagnosis takes place too late and when it is past any chances to save the patient. Moreover, women are shunned by households and many die in poverty, being destitute and helpless since the treatment is so expensive. This causes further disturbances in the socio-economic fabric by displacing families, disturbing kids and upsetting budgets. Things are made further deplorable by the fact that there are not many specialized hospitals to treat cancer in South Asia. For example, Pakistan, a country of 180 million, where over 52 percent of population are women, has only one cancer hospital. 

Local school girls raise awareness about Breast Cancer
in Pakistan.

Government and civil society are working hand in hand to curb this disease. Pink Ribbon Pakistan is a fortunate NGO to be funded from various government and international organizations. They offer self diagnosis and treatment options, but on their website it clearly states, that they need greater advocacy in the sector and want a dialogue initiated. Roko Cancer is a similar NGO working in India which provides free ultrasounds and mammograms and is creating meaningful change in behaviors and perception of people. 

The civil society in these countries is striving hard to generate greater voice through advocacy and by stimulating social movement towards the Breast cancer cause. However, the mammoth size challenges they face must not be underestimated. Often times they are dealing with complex religious, cultural and social myths associated with the disease which are very hard to dispel. Considering all these elements, in my opinion, further empowerment of civil society in these countries may help increase local people’s knowledge about the disease and improve the longevity of the patients. 

Due to the advances in technology, a Breast cancer is thankfully not incurable. In fact, it is promising to see that in developed countries, such as the US, there has been a phenomenal 20% increase in 5 year survival rate, in three decades. This is a huge increase made possible due to increase in advocacy, dialogue, literacy and cheaper heath care options. Perhaps, with greater care and empathy, one day not only privileged women in the West but also the common women in developing world will be able to defeat this deadly disease. 

Indian Actress Sonam Kapoor as a spokesperson for Elle Breast Cancer Campaign India.

Even Devil Is Afraid Of His/Her Advocates.

 Famous Indian Marxist revolutionary Bhagat Singh Shaheed said once, “After the British elite leave India, she will be ruled by a Brown elite.” His predictions manifest itself in each and every part of everyday dealings and operations of countries now known as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. However, the biggest joke is the legal systems of these countries which entirely run upon the whims of the wealthy minority. There are special built-in provisions for elite in the constitutions of these countries and the discrimination runs so deep that it has been made nearly impossible for a poor person to obtain justice. When it comes to poor people, “Justice Delayed is Justice Denied” maxim is taken in literal terms and applied with full rigor. But when it comes to the rich, no matter how big the crime is, justice is swift and often time not justice but, injustice.

I was inspired to write this blog post after watching a Bollywood movie called Jolly LLB, which was an excellent social satire of Indian legal system. It is based on the true story of Sanjeev Nanda case, when a rich and powerful businessman killed 5 poor laborers sleeping on a sidewalk and then walked scot-free thanks to the loopholes in the law fully exploited by the defense and conveniently ignored by the prosecution. This movie resonated to me because the situations, characters, places, urban fabric, apathy and class struggles of modern India (similar to almost all other development countries) were portrayed without any sugar coating or emotional melodrama.

 Jolly LLB., also showcases the frustrations within the Indian penal courts, the way lawyers nickel and dime it and the way rich clients can always go free by manipulating/removing evidence of their crimes by bribing police officials and hiring expensive defense attorneys. Although a good laugh, this movie was a very crucial reality check of the decaying justice system in subcontinent that keeps getting worse. I chose to blog about this movie because cinema and theatre are two very important tools to portray the underlying development themes in any country and Jolly LLB., is a well-done example of that. I recommend this movie to everyone. Watching it won’t be the proverbial life changing experience but it will definitely teach you a bit or two about the value of justice and how it’s miscarried in fact not provided at all to the most needy in the darkest quarters of the world.

In Pakistan, I have seen lawyers acting as thugs and operating as a deranged fraternity on multiple occasions who will do anything to protect their interests even if it comes at the cost of making a joke of the very institution that they are representing.


So what do you think? Will you watch this movie? Have you ever had an interesting experience with police/ any form of law in any developing or developed country? Please leave your valuable comments in the section below.

 

One woman VS a Multimillion Dollar Industry

What will be your reaction, if you ever heard a rap song called “Rape Rap”? Wait, if the name of the song isn’t self explanatory enough for you, I will give you the basic synopsis of the song. In this song, the singer relishes his fantasy/experience of savagely raping a helpless woman. I am hoping that your only possible reaction will be of shock, disgust and utter horror. Yet, such a decadently lavish display of misogyny was not only produced, but has been widely circulated to an international audience since 2006. The credit to this derogatory song goes to none other than the star Punjabi rapper, Yo Yo Honey Singh.

Being Punjabi myself, I have nothing but absolute respect for the ethnic Punjabi music industry. We have the most beautiful songs which can compete with any form of international music in terms of their emotional and spiritual depths. Yet, recent years have seen people’s preference shifting from traditional Punjabi music to Punjabi gangsta rap. Punjabi gangster rap, like its North American father (which it religiously tries to emulate) is a multimillion dollar industry erected entirely upon objectification of women.

 The nosedive of Punjabi rap started when countless videos displaying scantily clad women dancing in clubs going crazy over wannabe rappers went unchecked; and has culminated in songs like Main Hun Balatkari (I am a rapist) and Choot (Vagina) having become cult hits. While researching this blog post, I had to read the lyrics to these songs, and trust me I could not go past the first verse. The sheer lewdness and sexual deviance shamed the most misogynistic North American rap song I had ever listened to. What troubled me the most was the fact, that these lyrics came to light only now in the wake of the Delhi gang rape case even though they are in wide circulation since 2006.

This is where the proverbial 'light at the end of the tunnel' enters our story. We have a heroine here. Kalpana Misra, an Indian blogger and activist, started an online campaign against the rapper’s New Year night concert in an up class hotel on Change.org. She managed to garner more than 2600 supporters (men and women) in the first 24 hours. Social media created a powerful ripple effect which resulted in outraged remarks by thousands of people on Twitter. Soon after, massive media coverage followed and the hotel managers had to cancel the show.  The campaign even reached the neighboring Pakistan, where Honey Singh was scheduled to perform, and where he enjoys a huge fan base. This episode has sent out a strong message to the Indian Music industry: that from now on they are under close scrutiny; that misogyny and objectification of women are not acceptable; that women have had enough; that rape is rape and sex is sex, and distinction between the two must be clearly understood.

Learning Experience:
I chose to write about this incident because in my opinion, it is a small but meaningful event in the context of development and women rights. In the past, I have conveniently ignored misogynistic descriptions of women in media, even though I loathed them. I created a shell and taught myself to look past magazine covers and ignore vile rap songs, not out of choice but to keep my sanity intact. It’s difficult to be a woman in this world and it’s further difficult to be a woman of color because we face discrimination on multiple levels. Lending out our voice to a cause immediately labels us as feminists (which has a very bad connotation) and even homosexuals (both of which I do not have a problem with personally, but these labels tend to discourage intelligent discourse). Kalpana Misra’s courageous example is inspirational and has taught women like me that we should believe in the power of ripple effects. We shouldn’t be scared of what we are not comfortable with. We should report, campaign and use social media to our advantage. We should be on the lookout for such songs and images which depict us as anything but living, breathing, fellow human beings. We should create awareness not just for women but for our brothers, boyfriends, husbands and sons.

So what do you think about this story? What are your thoughts on Honey Singh and rap music in general (Any type of rap music)? What solutions do you put forth for the reduction of objectification in the rap music industry? Please let me know. Thanks.

                                          The Casanova himself. Feel free to bleed your eyes out.

Grassroots ingenuity

Have you ever seen a man who loved his wife so much that to find a solution to her monthly problem, he actually wore panties and simulated an experiment involving animal blood to understand how she felt during her period? Sounds fairy-tale like but meet Mr. Arunachalam Muruganantham, a South Indian man, who has accomplished not just this but so much more. Dubbed as the “first man to wear a sanitary towel” by the BBC and “Tampon King” by the Independent, he is no pervert but a dedicated and self-motivated individual who created a social enterprise from nothing but scratch and has revolutionized the period industry for good.

Mr. Muruganantham inspirational story started in 1998. He belonged to a BPL ( Below poverty line) household where his mother worked as a hand loom operator and he himself, a high school dropout, worked as a workshop helper. One day he saw his wife going to the bathroom with an extremely dirty rag. Upon asking what it was, she told him that she was going to use it for her time of the month. He was shocked to see the unhygienic cloth being used for this purpose. But more so, he was shocked to hear that his wife was forced to use this horrible fabric, just because she could not buy milk for the family, if she spent money on expensive sanitary pads.

 This event would mark the beginning of his decade long tiresome, long and searing journey to find the cheapest sanitary materials that could give his wife a safe and clean menstrual time.

In India, only 2 percent of women can afford to use sanitary pads during their periods.   The rest of 98 percent (millions of women) use rags, ash, mud and some even sit on hay for days until the periods pass. Some even die due to infections caused by using moldy clothes in which insect live and thrive. Due to these reasons, many school going girls end up dropping out because they just cannot cope with the pressures of managing a period. This creates a never ending cycle of poverty and misery.

 On top of that there are extreme superstitions and taboos attached with the menstrual talk. As a convention, a man just cannot talk about it, let alone know about it in detail. Women guard their period like a closely guarded secret. Talking about periods to a girl and between themselves is actually a sexual fetish for many young South Asian men, due to the cultural secrecy surrounding the menstrual cycle in those countries. So you can imagine, what kind of problems Muruganantham had to face when he set out in his quest to find a cheap alternative to expensive pads for his wife. He outlines his journey in the following talk.( I highly recommend listening to this)

He realized that the multinational corporations were selling a 10 Paisa  (0.001892 Canadian cents) raw material for 4 Rupees (0.08 CAD). There, his quest started for the best raw material to use in his sanitary napkins. After many trials he finally found the material known for excellent absorbency. Yes, it was wood pulp.   He sat down to make a low cost effective machine that would convert wood pulp to sanitary napkins.After 6 years of relentless determination, hardwork and dedication he finally made a machine that would make, not only  sanitary napkins but will provide employment for millions of women in rural India.

 Instead of creating a corporate structure, he opted for Self Help Groups where rural women are taught how to make the pads, who then sell it to women like themselves at a very low cost (less than third the cost of traditional napkins).  His aim is to make India a 100 percent napkin using country. Currently, 627 of his machines are in production in 23 states of  India and 6 other countries, which creates employment while creating tremendous amounts of  sustainable social change.  The reason why he is doing that is following in his own words:

“From the childhood I know, no human being die because of poverty. Everything happens because of ignorance. So, ignorance means what you know? Just chasing this money.”