By Anuradha Chatterji | Director, Resource Development
CREA conducted its fourth SELF academy in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand from September 24 to October 8, 2018. A total of 42 girls including four female coaches and 4 trainers from partner organisations* from Jharkhand participated in the 15 day long residential SELF academy. The participants were of the age 17-21 years.
Over the fifteen days of the academy, different sessions using sports, arts, media and technology were conducted for learning, playing, bonding, leading and deciding together. During the SELF academy, girls were engaged into reflective and thought provoking discussions to explore their lives and communities – together they explored choice and consent, love and relationships; technology from a feminist lens; and access to public spaces and idea of fear and learnt skills like computers, social media, comics, arts, football and campaigns.
“My name is Neha (name changed), I am 19 years old and study in college. I want to know if there is any biological reason for having short height and how can I cure it? People from my village mock me and make fun of my height. They say that nobody will marry me because of my height. They also question the clothes I wear and ask me to wear typical ‘girl suit’. I don’t like wearing those clothes. I have stopped interacting with people, I do not have friends and to avoid questions and teasing, I stay alone.” – A participant from Hazaribagh district
This academy helped them to explore and understand the idea of ‘space’ which included exploring public, private, online and digital spaces where the discriminatory norms operate to control lives of women and girls. To build understanding on these aspects and their intersections with gender, sexuality, caste, religion etc.
"I never thought that I was being discriminated against my brother in my family..but after coming to SELF I realised that my brother owns a smartphone and has access to internet, but I am not even allowed to TOUCH his phone.. I felt so happy when I used a computer for the first time in my life, here at SELF." – A participant from Jamshedpur. She even made a comic titled ‘Discrimination’ to share her story with others.
* Lok Prerna Kendra, Mahila Mukti Sansthan, Srijan Foundation and Nurture Trust
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