VMPL
New Delhi [India], November 21: In Uttar Pradesh, Breakthrough's Seeds of Change shows how storytelling can shift gender norms and redefine what leadership looks like in India's fields.
Hundreds of kilometres away in the heartland of Uttar Pradesh, four young women -- Anuradha, Mansa, Manisha, and Sanjana -- are quietly rewriting India's agricultural story. For generations, women here have sown, weeded, and harvested. But they rarely decided what to grow, how to sell, or who owned the land. That domain belonged to men -- until now.
Through Breakthrough's long-term engagement in rural communities, these young women began questioning the status quo -- and discovered that the power to lead, negotiate, and own was not a privilege, but a right.
The result was transformative: an all-women farmers' collective, reclaiming spaces long dominated by men. Today, they take decisions on farming together, cultivate confidence alongside crops, and are redefining what leadership looks like in India's fields.
"Their story proves that when women lead, equality grows stronger -- and communities thrive," says Vimala Rajkumari, Creator of Hope in Motion, a four-part documentary series streaming on JioHotstar. "The idea behind the series is to make these invisible stories visible -- to take the language of impact out of boardrooms and policy papers, and into the mainstream."
A new language for impact storytelling
Hope in Motion is not a campaign film. It's a cultural moment -- an experiment in what its creator calls impact entertainment. The series, supported by CSR and foundation partners such as Flipkart Foundation, United Breweries Limited, American India Foundation, and Breakthrough, captures what social transformation truly looks like on the ground -- one life, one community, one ripple at a time.
The Seeds of Change episode -- featuring Breakthrough's work -- digs deep into gender and social norms that shape rural India. In a country where women constitute 64.4% of the agricultural workforce, yet remain largely invisible in ownership and decision-making, the episode poses a quiet but radical question:
Who gets to be called a farmer?
Beyond awareness: shifting narratives
For years, Breakthrough has worked to shift gender norms across India by fostering aspiration, agency, negotiation, and leadership in young people. The women of Seeds of Change embody that philosophy.
Challenging gender norms takes courage and collective strength. These women farmers are proof that equality grows where women lead", says Pritha Chatterjee, Lead - Organisational Positioning, Breakthrough
Their story isn't framed in charity or empowerment tropes -- it's about agency and equality. And Hope in Motion ensures that such stories aren't confined to NGO reports or academic panels. They're now finding space on prime-time screens, reaching audiences who can influence perception and policy alike.
"We've always believed that social change needs a cultural shift," says Vimala Rajkumari. "Storytelling is how you move people emotionally before you move them structurally. That's why Hope in Motion exists -- to build a bridge between awareness and action."
From awareness to action
As India charts its path to the Sustainable Development Goals, such narratives remind us that gender equality isn't an abstract goal -- it's growing, quite literally, in the fields of Uttar Pradesh.
And as Hope in Motion continues to spotlight real people driving real change, it quietly signals a larger shift -- one where purpose and storytelling walk hand in hand.
Watch 'Seeds of Change' -- https://www.hotstar.com/in/shows/hope-in-motion/1271463219/seeds-of-change/1271463740/watch?search_query=hop
Produced by Vsual Brewery, in collaboration with Breakthrough.
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