Indian, director of, opposing sex-based violence, and supporting the common wellbeing
Mallika Dutt (b. 1962) is an Indian woman who is known for her innovative work on human rights. She has provided the world with a new perspective on this matter through founding organizations like Breakthrough or Bell Bajao.
Breakthrough’s mission is to make violence against women and girls unacceptable. It uses a mix of arts, media, technology, training and community mobilization to address deeply entrenched societal norms that perpetuate gender violence and discrimination.
In Breakthrough’s organization they work on four topis, all related: gender-biased sex selection, domestic violence, early child marriage and sexual harassment.
—This was the way Mallika explained Breakthrough’s concept and main goal.
“Bell Bajao calls on men and boys to take a stand against domestic violence.”—Mallika said this statement about Bell Bajao on her TED talk in Gateway in 2012. Bell Bajao’s moto at that time was “Bring domestic violence to a halt”.
Mallika believes we can help the world by being together and acting as one, and she tries to inspire leaders to remember their innate interconnectedness in order to create change and impact. INTER-CONNECTED is a movement that invites people to “embrace collaboration to cultivate a world where we can flourish and thrive together”.
Mallika’s dream in 2016 was that the human rights values of dignity, equality and justice actually come alive. Due to her hard work, she is achieving this goal little by little. Mallika has won several awards, such as the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship in 2016. Also, she is the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate from her undergraduate college, Mount Holyoke.
Mallika has mixed different approaches and has used diverse tools to make human rights alive.