Million Voices Campaign

The collection, 'Million Voices Campaign,’ consists of three series - ‘Banners with Comments from Million Voices Campaign,’ ‘Documents and Notes from PLD Workshops,' and ‘Handpainted Demonstration Posters from the Million Voices Campaign, 2009’.

The first series, ‘Banners with Comments from Million Voices Campaign Workshops’ consists of six cloth banners with comments containing the first expressions 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 written in Hindi and English were collected at special sessions held during CEDAW capacity building workshops organized by Partners for Law in Development (PLD). The workshop participants were introduced to the Naz Foundation case in an open session, usually at the end of the day, following a film screening, which served as a tool to communicate the lived realities and of queer persons. At the end of the session, cloth sheets were laid out for participants to scribble their comments on them.

The items of this accession are from six such workshops organized by PLD in Jharkhand, Bihar, New Delhi and Odisha between 2008 and 2010. Later, the cloth sheets were stitched together to be used in demonstrations around the city, as one long cloth banner to convey the voices of ordinary citizens on the issue. The comments were relatable, generating conversations in the public that would stop by to look at the banner - widening engagement.

The second series, ‘Documents and Notes from PLD Workshops,’ comprises work plans and discussion notes from CEDAW workshops organised between 2008 and 2010, including sessions that addressed the constitutional challenge to Section 377. Produced as part of PLD’s organisational record-keeping, documentation, and learning practices, these materials provide insight into the broader debates fostered by the CEDAW capacity-building workshops on women, gender, and discrimination, within which the Million Voices Campaign (MVC) sessions were situated. Only a selective body of documents has been retained - not solely for their relevance to the decriminalisation of homosexuality and the Million Voices Campaign, but more significantly for their value in tracing PLD’s learning processes and pathways for integrating queer rights into its core work on women, gender, sexuality, and the law. Preserved within the archive, these materials document the methodologies and internal processes through which PLD conceptualised and implemented its day-to-day work as part of the Million Voices Campaign.

The third series, ‘Handpainted Demonstration Posters from the Million Voices Campaign, 2009’ comprises two hand-painted cloth posters that celebrate sexual diversity and protest the criminalisation of homosexuality. Created as visual and artistic tools for the Million Voices Campaign discussion sessions on homosexuality, these posters functioned both as pedagogical aids within workshops and as materials for public demonstration. They were also carried by PLD members during Pride marches in Delhi, situating them at the intersection of internal movement-building and public advocacy.