Ultra Violet
Background and History
It is an initiative by Hengasara Hakkina Sangha (HHS), a women’s rights organization in Bangalore, India , which works in the areas of gender, law and rights. The site was started in August 2007. Poet, writer and journalist Anindita Sengupta is the founder and Executive Editor of the site. The Associate Editors are Indhu Subramaniam, Director of HHS and Usha BN, Programme Coordinator, HHS. Regular contributors include Anita Ratnam, Founder Director of Samvada Youth Resource Centres, feminist writer Meena Kandasamy, poet Sharanya Manivannan, and preschool owner and educator Dilnavaz Bamboat.
Mission
The site’s manifesto states that “women experience their lives from multiple locations and there are many different feminisms. Ultra Violet provides a place to explore and understand the ways in which young women in India are challenging, negotiating and transforming unequal power structures. It is also a space to celebrate women’s histories, wisdom, creativity, laughter and love for life.”
Why Ultra Violet?
In an early post, Associate Editor Indhu Subramaniam explained the need for such a space for ‘young’ feminists in India: “Though I don’t subscribe to ‘youth’ in itself as a political category, I definitely feel, as young women calling ourselves feminists, we need to build collective identities, and arguments. There is a very real need for dialogue among us if we have to hold up half the sky, break bread and have cuppa in solidarity. This space and identity is important even if it means we just end up posing a counter to specious ‘post feminist’ arguments.”
Over the last few months, the site has featured a host of articles on topics as diverse as Domestic violences, Acid attacks, Sexual harassment at the workplace, the plight of the Transgendered community and Witch-hunting among dalits.
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