Posted: 28/09/2007
A one day workshop on Gender Sensitisation was organized by Sunita Dash for the Asha project team last week, with 45 supervisors, team leaders and teachers of women's and children's groups attending. The workshop was made interactive by including brainstorming sessions, group exercises and open discussions. A film was also screened, followed by a very active debate.
The workshop was designed to cover all aspects of violence against women, including "eve teasing" (sexual harassment), rape, domestic violence, and female foeticide/ infanticide. There was discussion on the provisions within the Constitution intended to combat gender-biased attitudes.
The Response on Domestic Violence Act, passed in October 2006, and the Complaints Committee that addresses the issue of sexual harassment in workplaces were new to the participants. Some questions relating to the Domestic Violence Act and the Complaints Committee were clarified there and then.
A Hindi film ‘Hari Bhari' (meaning 'fertility') was screened to show the plight of women. The film showed the status of women in Muslim families over three generations. As a result of gender bias and a patriarchal society, the women were just treated as machines for the production of children. A huge stigma was attached to the use of contraception, the women were not allowed to choose their partners and lacked their own identity. Bearing children at an early age and the family pressure to have a boy child affected their health. The issues of domestic violence, marital rape, stigma attached to family planning methods, family pressure to have more children and reluctance to educate girls were addressed during the film. After the film there was lot of discussion on the characters and how they resemble some women in slum colonies.
At the end of the workshop, the participants decided to screen the film in slum communities to sensitise and motivate women, adolescents and men to stop violence against women.
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I've been involved with Asha for years now. I hardly used to go to school, and had no direction in life, but since Asha encouraged me to study I've realised how important it is. This July (2010) I was admitted to Delhi Technological University to study Engineering - Asha supported me a lot during my exams and the application process. Now I know that I can succeed, and all my hard work will be worthwhile.
Mahesh, Dr Ambedkar Basti
