This NGO grooms adolescent boys to make the world more gender equal

Equal Community Foundation is working with adolescent boys to support them in becoming gender equitable adults

All of 16, Omkar is a bright student who takes tuition for younger boys to support them in their education. His classes though are different from the regular tuitions boys in Chandan Nagar, Pune, are used to. Apart from the regular lessons, Omkar encourages discussions on ideas of consent, human rights, gender-based violence and many other gender-related concepts that he is learning as a participant in Equal Community Foundation’s (ECF) Action for Equality programme.
 
Sometime in 2009, when Will Muir, founder, ECF, was running a cinema business in Pune, his customers primarily were young boys. “In order to understand how I could help young boys, I first needed to understand the issues they faced. So I rang up philanthropists and social workers in Pune. Everybody told me that they don’t work with boys but instead with women and girls, who are the victims and survivors of gender-based discrimination and violence. It was at that moment that I realised that boys and men who are so often the perpetrators of gender based violence are as yet not part of the solution,” recalls Muir.

 
ECF was formed with the mission to raise every boy in India to be gender equitable. However, the foundation found two problems in this mission. First: What combination of programmes ensures that a boy’s attitudes and behaviours are fully equitable. Second: How do you scale that combination of programmes to every boy in India?
 

The programme, Action for Equality, has been trying to solve that problem of scale. It is a 60-week, 120-hours community-based programme where professional facilitators deliver a structured curriculum to boys aged between 13 and 15. The programme builds boys knowledge, skills in order to transform their attitudes and behaviours. Boys learn about discrimination and violence. They reflect on how these issues affect their own communities their families and how they have affected themselves.

 
“When boys talk about how they felt when they faced discrimination and violence, they realise that they felt sad, and angry, and hurt; and then it was unfair. Or more accurately, it was a contravention of their human rights,” says Muir. Boys are also asked to identify other people in their community who suffer from violence and discrimination. “This empathy, boys build through reflecting on their experiences is central to the programme’s success,” he adds.
 
ECF implements Action for Equality in 20 low-income communities in Pune. It has also built the capacity of 24 organisations across Maharashtra, West Bengal and Jharkhand to engage adolescent boys. The foundation has also provided access to its resources, curriculum and tools via an online portal: www.projectraise.org.in. According to Muir, a vast majority of organisations working with women and girls have felt a need to engage boys, but they lack the capacity, resources and tools. “There is an urgent need for funders to step in to support capacity building and to provide seed funding for organisations who are able to articulate how engaging boys will improve outcomes for women and girls,” he adds.

 
Project Raise, another collaboration effort by ECF, seeks to convene and build the capacity of a coalition of organisations who are committed to the outcome of gender equitable boys. Since 2014, they have convened over 300 individuals and organisations and 10 per cent of them have gone on to implement programmes that raise boys to be gender equitable. Muir aims to increase the geographical and technical diversity that is represented in the coalition.
 
With a total staff strength of 32, ECF’s Action for Equality programme has managed to reach 5,339 boys while their Project Raise with the help of partners across India has reached 5,629 boys in Pune. However, the process to create more awareness in the community, to gather support from the community to challenge existing gender norms takes time. And thus, working with the boys with a transformative approach has been a big challenge for the foundation. One of the greatest being unravelling the knot of gender attitudes and norms woven into the fabric of society. “Even when participants are able to identify them and are motivated to take action, they face backlash from their family and friends,” says Muir.

 
Further, at the grassroots level, community members don’t see how gender programmes meet their aspirations for education, job training, a good job. As the foundation works in the age group of 13-17-year-olds, it is quite a challenge to keep their attention and interest. Therefore, they focus on sessions that are activity-based and participatory in nature.
 
In today’s day and age where gender based violence are a norm, Muir finds ECF’s role important as well as emerging. Research has shown that boys who grow up in gender-equitable households, will be less likely to be violent men. Christina Furtado, executive director, ECF, feels that gender equality is not a zero-sum game. Perhaps it is time to reflect on the role that gender norms play in one’s own life and start not just changing them but also call out any gender- based violence or discrimination we see. “This will make us more aware as a citizen,” says Furtado. Parents must raise children as human beings, not as ‘boys’ or ‘girls.’