Mothers Holding Space | Women Uninterrupted Podcast – Episode 42
The podcast 'Women Uninterrupted' highlights the award-winning film 'Mothers of Courage,' which documents community-led efforts in Bihar, India, to keep girls in school. The film addresses systemic barriers like caste discrimination and lack of infrastructure.
Why it matters
It sheds light on grassroots social movements aimed at improving education equity and gender equality in rural India.
Women Uninterrupted went behind the scenes of Mothers of Courage, the sole Indian submission shortlisted in the Sustainable Development Goals category at Cannes Lions 2026. The subject of the film is the Shiksha Chaupal, community-led dialogue circles where women and families gather to talk about why girls are not in school.
Guest: Khushboo Awasthi, Co-founder & COO of ShikshaLokam and Co-founder of Mantra4Change
“There’s no voiceover because I wanted just their voices. I’m not interpreting it for them” Vandana R. Jaikumar on the women in her film Mothers of Courage
When Vandana R. Jaikumar went in with a camera to document Shiksha Chaupals in Bihar, she didn’t intend to make a film that would go places - like Cannes.
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