Stories of unmarried women facing stigma at the gynaecologist.
#MyGynaecStory was the online leg of a much larger campaign called Health Over Stigma, by the non-profit group Haiyya. The campaign sought to dismantle the stigma surrounding the sexual health of unmarried women, and demanded accountability from medical service providers for stigma-free, non-judgemental sexual and reproductive healthcare. It aimed to receive public commitments from hospitals, ministries and health actors to update their codes of conduct. We wanted unmarried women across India to share first-person experiences of stigma using the hashtag #MyGynaecStory — to build legitimacy around the issue so we could hold medical service providers accountable.
Running for 5 months (June 17–November 11), the campaign was extremely successful in capturing public attention and sparking a conversation about unmarried women’s right to stigma-free healthcare. As part of this campaign, I ran regular social media chats on Twitter and Instagram, created posters highlighting women’s experiences, produced a video, and culminated with a social media storm in which over 80 women shared their stories in a single day. Overall, the campaign shared over 260 stories by unmarried women narrating their experiences of stigma, discrimination and low-quality healthcare.
