Breakthrough (human rights)
Breakthrough is a global human rights organization working to end violence against women and girls.
Based in India and the United States, Breakthrough's multimedia campaigns address global issues including violence against women, sexuality and HIV/AIDS, and immigrant rights and racial justice. Breakthrough envisions a world in which all people enjoy their human rights and live with dignity, equality, and justice. We can build this world by making violence and discrimination against women and girls unacceptable.
Their mission is to prevent violence against women and girls by transforming the norms and cultures that enable it. They carry out this mission by building a critical mass of change agents worldwide — the Breakthrough Generation — whose bold collective action will deliver irreversible impact on the issue of our time. Working out of centers in India and the U.S., Breakthrough creates innovative, relevant multimedia tools and programs — from short animations to long-term leadership training — that reach individuals and institutions where they are, inspiring and equipping them to build a world in which all people live with dignity, equality, and justice.
Indian-American human rights activist and cultural entrepreneur Mallika Dutt founded Breakthrough in 2000 with Mann ke Manjeeré: An Album of Women's Dreams, an album and music video on women’s rights. Launched as an experiment in using pop culture and media for social justice, Mann ke Manjeeré remained on the Indian pop charts for six weeks, going on to win the 2001 National Screen Award in India for best music video.
On using pop culture tools to promote human rights, Dutt has said, “After working inside the global human rights movement for most of my professional life, the experience of seeing the same faces at every meeting, policy brief or conference had left me frustrated … The more I thought about it, the more convinced I’d become that media, art and popular culture could express [human rights] values in new ways for new audiences.”
Dutt served as President and CEO through March 2017. As of July 2017, the President and CEO is Sohini Bhattacharya.
Developed in pro bono partnership with Ogilvy & Mather, Bell Bajao is a domestic violence awareness on men and boys to act as partners in ending violence against women. Since 2008, Bell Bajao has reached more than 130 million people in India through a series of popular television advertisements.
Breakthrough’s Bell Bajao (Ring the Bell), their largest and most widely lauded campaign, has called on millions across the globe to “ring the bell” against domestic violence. This multimedia campaign—recipient of a prestigious Cannes Silver Lion—shows men ringing the doorbell to interrupt overheard violence, positioning domestic abuse as everyone’s issue and men as partners, not just perpetrators. Their community workshops and leadership trainings use games, street theater, and other relevant cultural tools to transform brothers, sisters, fathers, and mothers into advocates for women’s rights. Bell Bajao’s tools and tactics have been adapted by individuals and organizations in many nations worldwide, leading to the campaign's formal global expansion, Ring the Bell. Community by country by continent, Breakthrough is working to build a world in which everyone is safe in their homes and limitless in their dreams.
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