Agency: dentsu impact | Market: India
Client: My Choices Foundation

The Indian National Commission for Women reported a sharp increase in cases of domestic violence, rape and attempted rape from March 2020 onwards. While the lockdown has been a necessary step to prevent the spread of COVID-19, it also meant that women who are victims of sexual domestic assaults, were trapped inside the house with their abusers. Many have become mothers – with no choice and no way out, facing a future which has been thrust upon them.

To get the world talking about issues facing women during lockdown, dentsu impact in India conceptualised and executed a digital video that put the spotlight on one of the biggest, yet least understood, causalities of the pandemic.

My Choices Foundation aims to give women and girls the choice to live free from violence, abuse and exploitation. Our brief was to highlight this sharp increase worldwide due to the lockdown. As the world celebrated Mother’s Day, its eyes needed to be opened to the plight of millions of women who never had the choice of not becoming mothers.

We conceptualised and executed a digital video to highlight the problem. The video shows women staring at the camera, unable to speak a word. But despite the silence, what we see is anger, angst and suffocation. We hear the claustrophobic pain these women go through every day. The voiceover is their inner voice, pleading for us to help them and prevent them from becoming mothers by force.

As Elca Grobler of My Choices Foundation said, “The video leaves one infuriated and with a feeling of disgust at what vulnerable women have to endure. Although it is extremely difficult to fully know the pain that these women go through, it sends across an immensely strong message – let us not be silent.”