''Pedaling to Freedom'' (

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

) is a 28-minute

documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

directed by Vijay S. Jodha. The film shows how a simple thing, such as teaching women to ride a bicycle in a deprived part of the world, can have a life-changing impact. The documentary was made in English and

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

Content

''Pedaling to Freedom'' is a documentary film set in

Pudukkottai Pudukkottai Municipal Corporation is the administrative headquarters of Pudukkottai district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is one of the oldest Heritage city located on the banks of the Vellar River. It has been ruled, at different t ...

district of

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. The film revisits a year-long initiative that took place there in 1993, in what used to be one of the poorest parts of the world. As a result of this initiative 230,000 people learnt to read and write, and over 100,000 women learnt to ride

bicycle A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike, push-bike or cycle, is a human-powered transport, human-powered or motorized bicycle, motor-assisted, bicycle pedal, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, with two bicycle wheel, wheels attached to a ...

Wages A wage is payment made by an employer to an employee for work done in a specific period of time. Some examples of wage payments include compensatory payments such as ''minimum wage'', '' prevailing wage'', and ''yearly bonuses,'' and remune ...

increased 1000%. It happened in the space of just one year and cost less than one and a half dollars per person. The film relies on archival stills, filmed footage as well as interviews with those who were associated with the project. Kannammal, an insurance company office assistant who took leave from work to volunteer for the project is featured prominently. She served as a central coordinator and at the end of the project, went back to her office where she remains an office assistant.

Mobility Mobility may refer to: Social sciences and humanities * Economic mobility, ability of individuals or families to improve their economic status * Geographic mobility, the measure of how populations and goods move over time * Mobilities, a conte ...

was seen as an important tool for

empowerment Empowerment is the degree of autonomy and self-determination in people and in communities. This enables them to represent their interests in a responsible and self-determined way, acting on their own authority. It is the process of becoming strong ...

and in addition to reading and writing, women were taught how to ride bicycles. The film captures the conditions in the district including

cycling Cycling, also known as bicycling or biking, is the activity of riding a bicycle or other types of pedal-driven human-powered vehicles such as balance bikes, unicycles, tricycles, and quadricycles. Cycling is practised around the world fo ...

classes for women where men often gathered to crack jokes and taunt women trying to learn cycling. The film highlights the partnership between public and private bodies as well as work of 25,000 volunteers that made it possible.

References

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P. Sainath Palagummi Sainath (born 13 May 1957) is an Indian columnist and author of the acclaimed book ''Everybody Loves a Good Drought''. He has extensively written on rural India, his notable interests are Poverty in India, poverty, Economic inequality, ...

br>"Where there's a wheel, there's a way"
in ''

Everybody Loves a Good Drought ''Everybody Loves a Good Drought'' is a book, by P. Sainath, about his research findings of poverty in the rural districts of India. The book won him the Ramon Magsaysay Award. Sainath wrote the book by combining 84 articles that he had written ...

'',

Penguin Penguins are a group of aquatic flightless birds from the family Spheniscidae () of the order Sphenisciformes (). They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere. Only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is equatorial, with a sm ...

, 2002
UNESCO Document, Living Literacy; 2001, UNESCO, 2001

UNESCO Document on Pudukkottai & other literacy initiatives worldwide

Various Government of India documents dealing with education in India

Pedaling to Freedom trailer

How the bicycle became a symbol of women's emancipation
Indian short documentary films Documentary films about cycling 2007 short documentary films 2007 films

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See also

References

External links