Spotlight is a Media Fellowship for reportage on discrimination and violence against women and trans persons with disabilities.
Rising Flame and BehanBox announce a fellowship from women and marginalised gender journalists to produce deep dive reportage on discrimination and violence faced at the intersection of gender and disability. The fellowship funds original reportage highlighting lived experiences, gaps in coverage, understanding, data, policy responses and awareness about the violence and discrimination.
The fellowship supports 5 women and marginalised gender journalists to investigate and produce original reportage around (but not limited to) the following themes:
- Violence against women and trans persons with disabilities: the various forms, areas, and around specific disabilities.
- Sexual and reproductive health and rights related violations experienced by women and trans persons with disabilities.
- Discrimination faced by gender marginalised disabled persons in the COVID-19 crisis: access to vaccinations, healthcare, education, employment and so on.
- Violence related laws for women and protections for disabled women.
This is a 3 month fellowship which began in August 2021.
The three fellows who participated in the fellowship are:
- Flavia Lopes is an independent journalist covering land and sustainability. She has a master's degree in Conflict Studies from LSE and has worked with Land Conflict Watch.
- Geetika Mantri is a senior editor and journalist with The News Minute with over five years of experience. She writes on several issues including gender, women and child rights, and mental health and tries to bring out human interest angles in her stories. In her spare time, she is often on the lookout for horror films to watch and fantasy fiction to read.
- Shreya Raman is a Mumbai-based journalist reporting on gender, health and public policy. In 2019, she was a finalist for the Impact Journalism Grant and she is currently also a Tableau Equal Measures 2030 data fellow.
Their pieces were:
- India’s Laws Fail To Uphold Abortion Rights Of Women With Disabilities by Shreya Raman
- ‘How Will You Manage?’ How Disabled Women Are Forced Into Surgical Procedures by Geetika Mantri
- Who Gets To Be A Mother? How Disabled Women Are Absent In The Idea Of Motherhood by Flavia Lopes
- Tangled In Red Tape, The Disability ID Card Process Is Steeped With Gender Barriers by Shreya Raman
- Women With Disabilities Have To Constantly Negotiate Between Isolation And Intrusion by Flavia Lopes
- Desire, Sexuality And Choice: Disabled Indian Women And Queer Persons On Their Experiences by Geetika Mantri
- Trans Persons With Disabilities Lack Enabling Social Systems And Healthcare Support by Flavia Lopes
- Why It Is Hard For Disabled Women, Queer Persons To Leave Abusive Partners