with role models like curvy yogis and xl fashion bloggers the body positive movement is helping indians overcome insecurities about their bodies growing up neha parulkar hated her overweight body i was always told there was nothing to love says the mumbai girl till the day she decided shed had enough who was i proving a point to why should my happiness be dependent on someone elses validation now the 27yearold who is a body positive influencer and model with 23000 followers on instagram is encouraging others to love what they see in the mirror even if it doesnt fit the traditional mould of beautythe body positive bopo in short movement is slowly gaining traction in india with many opening up about their insecurities over their bodies and how they learnt to overcome them at the forefront of these honest conversations is an instagram account called brown girl gazin curated by 22yearold photographer anushka kelkar it features portraits of women with captions that detail their struggles ranging from colour prejudice to the cruel things classmates would say about their weightthe experience of shooting and talking with so many women about these issues has made kelkar realise how often we see our bodies as something to be looked at rather than use she says in school we were so focused on how we looked but were scared to actually do things with our bodies like dancing freely or sitting however we wantthe idea that the body should do things is shared by many in the positivity club luvena rangel 40 dubs herself the curvy yogi on social media where she is quite active and teaches yoga fulltime in bengaluru at first she used to feel selfconscious about going to group classes yoga changed that now rangel is on a mission to dispel the notion that a yoga practitioner must look a certain way her classes teach asanas but also the philosophy behind yoga she says in class we have people struggling with body image issues or physical ailments some have lost a limb and have prosthetics you dont have to be a lycrabound skinny rubber band to do yoga another yogi whos been documenting her journey is 36yearold mumbaikar dolly singh her yoga photos and videos often attract surprised comments on her flexibility were bombarded with images that reinforce that fit women are always skinny people who follow me know how i look the more they see it the more its normalised and the stereotypes of bigbodied people being lazy slowly disappear she sayssingh says social media is her way of fighting patriarchy i wasnt raised with this idea that i need to look beautiful and marry a nice guy my mom focused more on empowering me to stand on my own two feet beauty is not the rent i pay to exist in this world she addsfor fashion blogger vishakha bhaskkar body positivity is about loving and accepting yourself equally on your worst and best days she started her fashion