INTRODUCTION TO
Parivartan-Empower Against Abuse
In 2020, deeply impacted by the gruesome rape and murder of Nirbhaya and Priyanka Reddy, 4 alumni from IIMs - Madhuri Agarwal, Shobana Anand, Shubhra Garg, and Smitha Shetty founded this initiative - Parivartan-Empower Against Abuse (Parivartan-EAA).
The initiative provides gender sensitization and gender equality training in Indian schools.
Parivartan-EAA's goal is to:
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Reduce the incidence of gender-based violence in India over time through a gender sensitization curriculum that nurtures dialogue over healthy gender norms and empowers children and young adults to make informed choices.
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Teach girls and boys to treat each other with mutual respect.
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Instills healthy masculinity in boys and healthy
self-confidence in girls.
The curriculum is based on the guiding principle of human rights- Let’s empower children to expect basic human rights for themselves and for others.
Their long-term vision is for every child in India to be empowered and educated to protect themselves and others from abuse and to grow up to be adults that stand up for gender equality, mutual respect, and rejection of violence.
How does Parivartan-EAA address this challenge?
A critical piece of the puzzle is to change mindsets. Studies show that empowering girls through life skills programs gives them the confidence to stand up to gender-based violence11. Early interventions for boys and men addressing unequal gender norms, healthy boundaries, and safe spaces are successful in changing the mindsets of men if delivered before biased gender norms are internalized 11. Systematically engaging men and boys to stop violence at all levels and instilling self-confidence in girls is critical to attaining success. And that is the premise on which Parivartan-EAA was founded.
The following are the objectives of the initiative:
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To change mindsets & sensitize children aged 10-21 about healthy gender norms, informed choice, and mutual respect through age-appropriate, interactive, experiential gender sensitization training in a safe and non-judgmental setting.
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To bring empowerment to our vulnerable children who are our future citizens, using knowledge, support, tools, and self-confidence to fight abuse.
3
Create next gen empowered citizens and parents who reject violence and are respectful to all genders, and who understand and implement healthy gender norms.
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Ensure that there are no victims and NO perpetrators.
Long term goals of Parivartan-EAA
To create a unified approach to implementing gender sensitization across the country using three pillars:
Create an army of volunteers in every state who will be ready to train in schools as needed.
Partner with government to provide support and access to schools in each state.
Identify corporate stakeholders who will fund this program.
Long-term: Volunteers, NGOs, corporate social giving, and government are key pillars for program success. Future: Aim to integrate curriculum into educational curricula, seeking collaboration with CSR teams and foundations.
Beneficiaries
Any gender in the age range of 11- 21 yrs is our Target group. Parents, guardians, and anyone associated with those children will be our indirect beneficiaries of this program.
Our vision is that when these children enter society as adults, they will NOT tolerate abuse of any kind and will NOT abuse and violate the boundaries of others. We also hope that this program will empower them to speak up and try and prevent this behavior from taking place in their friends, families, and communities.
Success so far
In 2022, we have trained more than 100 facilitators in the curriculum. These NGOs are from our NGO partners Bembala, CHSJ, Ek Asha, Isha Foundation, Learning Space Foundation (LSF), Magic Wand of Society (MWS), People’s Vigilance Committee on Human Rights (PVCHR) and Red Brigade.
These facilitators, already experienced in working on gender issues, have received ~20-30 hours of training each. Over the last one year, they have implemented the training across 6 states - Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa and Karnataka and 19 locations. We have trained more than 20K students in the range of 10 to 21 years.
In 2022, we collaborated with a team of three professors from premium institutes- London Business School, UChicago and San Diego State University to do an impact assessment study which proves that the curriculum is effective in changing mindsets on abuse across all genders.
In 2022, we won a grant from Cigna USA’s Community Ambassador Fellowship foundation to implement the program in India.