Give GIRLS in India a CHANCE at life

Dear donor,

The hard work put in by Breakthrough in Haryana for its Gender Biased Sex Selection program is slowly showing results. The program which started 5 years back is now getting into Endline evaluation phase and we have some early results for people like you who supported this mammoth effort to come through. In this report I would like to give you key highlights of our TKT school intervention program.

Classroom:

Our interaction with school children was in classrooms directly with students of class 7-9. The intervention started with the students in classes 7-8 and the same cohort is being tracked over the years for the purpose of evaluation. During the reporting period, the batch was in class 9-10. Activities like ‘poster making’ demonstrated the impact of the TkT program on young minds on their perception of a gender equal society. More than 7,000 posters were collected from the students and are now being used as a picture gallery during the video van run. The class 10 batch presented their learnings from the program and shared their experience of building a gender equal society.

Evaluation:

A dipstick conducted by J-Pal (our research partner) showed an increase in knowledge and shift in attitude among students who underwent TkT trainings in schools with an awareness of what constitutes gender discrimination and initiation of inter-generational dialogue on the issue. Some of the findings are:

• 74% of the students interviewed could recall the fundamentals of what they were taught in the previous sessions (80% in Sonipat, 75% in Panipat, 70% in Rohtak and 70% in Jhajjar)
• Most children referred to the colloquial term ‘Bhed Bhav’ (discrimination) to explain Breakthrough’s agenda to address gender discrimination. 95% of the students interviewed were aware that the sessions being conducted in their schools are facilitated by an organization called ‘Breakthrough’.
• 90% of students are able to identify the various forms of gender discrimination including inequitable access to resources, lack of mobility and sexual harassment, division of labour based on gender, celebrating the birth of a boy only, early marriage and dowry, property rights, gender segregation among others. However, only a small number at around 40% discussed gender discrimination at home. It was seen that in these instances, parents agreed that while discrimination was present in the community, it was not practiced in their homes. 95% male and 80% female respondents shared gender discrimination is not practiced in their households but is rampant in their communities.
• 90% of the students interviewed had informed their parents, a majority of whom were supportive of the sessions. 10% students took the messages on gender equality to their extended families and village community.
• 95% of the students surveyed had attended the video van program organised in their schools with 80% of them being able to recall the message of the videos and the street theatre performance.
• 85% respondents believe that there has been a change in how boys in their class perceive the girl students. The boys have become polite and respectful towards the girls following the intervention. Understanding that both men and women can share household chores and it was not right to assign tasks based on ones gender.
• Respondents were divided on the issue of whether their communities are becoming more equitable. While 45% believed that their communities are conservative and regressive towards women, the remaining 55% believed that their village community has become more gender sensitive.

Qualitative information: MSCTs

As a follow up part of TKT program, Most Significant change theory (MSCT) a monitoring and evaluation activity, was carried out and feedback taken from every student on their journey with the TkT program through awareness (jaano), realization (jaago) and influencing peers (jagaao) to map the knowledge change as well as behaviour change among students who underwent TKT trainings.  4000 stories of change were collected from Sonipat and Panipat alone. Of these, 600 stories have been shortlisted and 20 of these selected for a radio program for which scripting is underway currently.

THIS is just one part, a tiny glimpse, of the larger program result. With more evaluation results slowly pouring in, Breakthrough plans to keep all its donors abreast with findings. Stay tuned!!

We would of course keep looking at you, dear donor, to continue to support us in making our dream a reality and helping us taking this program forward and reach greater scale.

Warmly,

Jocelyn