Boys and Girls for Equality

In India, it’s unusual for the school setting to be used for anything other than academic instruction. But that’s exactly where an International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) program is taking place, one that encourages students to discuss such sensitive matters as society's expectations of women and men, violence in their community and what happens to their bodies during puberty. It’s called the Gender Equity Movement in Schools, or GEMS.

Photos: © David Synder/ICRW and Jeannie Bunton/ICRW

• Prachi Chavan and her older brother Dhiraj are part of ICRW’s Gender Equity Movement in Schools (GEMS) program in Mumbai, India. The program teaches 12- to 14-year-old students how to recognize social norms that often define the roles of men and women in India. It also champions equal relationships between boys and girls and addresses different forms of violence.
• Govandi Station Municipal School is one of 45 Mumbai-area schools that participate in GEMS. It’s located in Ghatla, a slum community in eastern Mumbai, and it’s where Prachi and Dhiraj attend.
• With GEMS, adult facilitators visit classrooms to discuss a variety of issues with students, including domestic violence and HIV. They tackle such serious topics in a fun, interactive way.
• Many GEMS students are known as “GEMS Monitors” – watchdogs, essentially, for any acts of inequality, violence and the like. They speak up and intervene.
• GEMS students take a pledge, painted here on a wall in the back of Prachi and Dhiraj’s school. Signed with their painted palms, students vowed to “treat all boys and girls equally, resolve all problems respectfully and protest against all kinds of violence.”
• Govandi School is just a short walk from Prachi and Dhiraj’s community, where on any given morning, women wash clothes in their doorways while children play in the narrow lanes that define each neighborhood in Ghatla. Prachi and Dhiraj's family has lived in the community for nearly 15 years.
• Prachi and Dhiraj’s parents already see changes in their children since they participated in GEMS. For instance, Dhiraj now helps prepare meals instead of leaving it only to his sister and mother – a job traditionally considered “women’s work.”
• “We are shocked to see the change,” says Dipti, Prachi and Dhiraj's mother. “I don’t have to reinstruct these two kids. They’re doing on their own.” Small changes are happening with other GEMS students, too.
• GEMS is proving to have a vital role in changing deeply-rooted social norms within Indian society. And the evidence suggests that schools might be the best places to intervene to make a lasting impact.