Million Voices Campaign

Content Description

This accession includes six cloth banners, two cloth posters with slogans, and documents such as meeting minutes, participant feedback forms, workshop agendas, and reports. a) The six cloth banners with comments contain the first expressions and responses from grassroots activists from the women’s rights and development sector on the issue of decriminalization of homosexuality by Section 377 of the IPC. The selected handwritten comments were collected at special sessions held during CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women) capacity-building workshops organized by Partners for Law in Development. After each workshop, participants used colored felt pens to write their responses on white cloth banners, reflecting on the discussion on same-sex love, homosexuality, and stigma. The items of this accession are from six such workshops organized in Jharkhand, Bihar, New Delhi, and Odisha between 2008 and 2010. b) Apart from the banners, the remaining documents contain workshop plans, agendas, and discussions related to the special session on homosexuality held during the Gender Equality (CEDAW) workshops between 2008 and 2010. They contain mentions of the special session or/and details of the planning and implementation of the Gender Equality Workshop. These documents include: two meeting agendas, four filled-out participant evaluation forms, one sheet with the plans for the workshops, and the handwritten meeting minutes for one meeting. These special discussion sessions were part of the Million Voices Campaign, an outreach initiative across India, to engage a wide range of community-level stakeholders in concerns connected with the Constitutional challenge to section 377 Indian Penal Code, led by the Naz Foundation in the Delhi High Court in 2001. The Million Voices Campaign was part of the outreach initiative of a Delhi-based cross-sectoral coalition of organizations called Voices Against 377. The campaign was key in building an understanding of how discrimination is shaped and intensified through the intersection of gender and sexuality.

Condition Description

For the 6 cloth banners: Comments are in yellow, green, blue, brown, purple, orange and pink felt pens – some are fading, some too light, while some are bold and clear. All except some comments in yellow felt pens are legible. The rest of the paper documents are in good condition with minimal wear and tear.

Accession Date

2025-08-01

Dispostion

This accession will be transferred to a new collection, 'Million Voices Campaign' with two series titled,- 'Banners with Comments from Million Voices Campaign Workshops,' and 'Documents and Notes from PLD Workshops.' Select material was retained for the archive. Documents, notes, and participant evaluation forms that did not contain references to the Million Voices Campaign were excluded at source. Four participant evaluation forms were selected for the archive from 218 evaluation forms, to offer a view of the kind of tools and back-end efforts deployed by the organization while implementing the Million Voices Campaign. These archival objects document the nature and process of organizational efforts around the decriminalization of homosexuality during a key historical and legal juncture in India. Records of this kind are rarely preserved or made accessible, often remaining within the files of particular offices or organizations as part of routine record-keeping. They face the risk of deterioration, misplacement, or erasure if not preserved. Archiving initiatives such as the Million Voices Campaign help preserve the value of the sustained grassroots efforts (across diverse institutions including the scientific, development and social sectors) that paved the way for the milestone judicial verdict in 2009 to decriminalize homosexuality.

Acquisition Type

Gift

Provenance

This material was retrieved between April and June 2025 from the Partners for Law in Development office in New Delhi, where it had been stored in storage boxes since its creation.

Retention Rule

The items offer a view into the on-ground interventions, dialogues, and expressions that constituted the social movement against Section 377 in India. This is evidence of the early stages of social change, which in many ways, preceded scientific and legal acceptance of homosexuality. Partners for Law in Development has full authority in handling the material, as these are part of Partners for Law in Development's documentation produced during its workshops. Going forward, a gift deed will be made by Partners for Law in Development to hand over the original banners to The Queer Archive for Memory Reflection and Activism (QAMRA) if they agree to take custody of the banners. Partners for Law in Development will curate the digitized material within its Feminist Law Archive with no restrictions.

Language of Description

English

Script of Description

Latin

Restrictions Apply

Yes

Access Restrictions

Collection is open for access unless mentioned in specific folders of the finding aid.

Use Restrictions

Copyright may not have been assigned to Archives at NCBS. Permission for reproduction or distribution must be obtained in writing from the Archives at NCBS (archives@ncbs.res.in). See access guidelines for more information (https://archives.ncbs.res.in/access). The Archives at NCBS makes no representation that it is the copyright owner in all of its collections. The user must obtain all necessary rights and clearances before use of material and material may only be reproduced for academic and non-commercial use.