Raising Boys to uphold Women's right to safety

The passionate youth team of Men Against Violence and Abuse, in the past 3 months, have continued their weekly interactive sessions with the adolescent boys from 3 disadvantaged communities.

These sessions have been participatory and with usage of innovative methods. There was a Body Mapping exercise, wherein boys were made to draw male and female anatomy and engage in serious conversation on usage of swear words based on women’s reproductive organs and women’s disrespect; Story-telling session to convey messages on women’s health and child sexual abuse; film-screenings and collage-making to open up on gender stereotypes; Games that are non-competitive and do not make any participant a winner or loser over the others. The idea has been to engage them in an on-going healthy dialogue on gender-sensitive behavior.

2 of the Boys from the Community were invited to a group of  youths to equip their skills in theatre at a 4-day intensive workshop. These boys, along with 6 other youths, collectively scripted a play on ‘Redefining Masculinity to prevent Violence Against Women’. Thereafter, they have been performing the 20-minute play for various groups across the city – outside railway stations, college campuses, hospitals, community centers and women’s groups. Spreading message to a wider audience  on women’s right to dignity and safety, the play has been making waves.