Asia

ICRW’s Parivartan program begins an interactive, mobile campaign to spread messages about non-violence and gender equality to youth in Mumbai.

Mumbai students show off a comic book they received after participating in Parivartan’s mobile van campaign.

MUMBAI, India – The International Center for Research on Women’s (ICRW) Parivartan program – which works with young cricket players in India to reduce violence against women – this month launched a mobile, interactive campaign to further promote the core principles of Parivartan.

Led by ICRW partner organization Breakthrough, and done in collaboration with the U.S.-based Futures Without Violence, formerly Family Violence Prevention Fund, the campaign uses sports, dance, skits, trivia and video to educate youth how to stop and prevent “eve teasing” of women and girls. Eve teasing refers to when men and boys sexually harass women and girls in public places – either with words or inappropriate touching. The main messages of the campaign are that eve teasing is wrong, it must stop and that respecting women and girls “is the mark of a true star.”

The new initiative runs through Feb. 13, and features a van that travels to several neighborhoods and schools throughout Mumbai to hold 30 to 45 minute shows. Specifically, the campaign features a short street play on the ill effects of eve teasing, a cricket trivia quiz, interactive games with prizes and discussions. Participants also view a video about the Parivartan program.

An emcee talks to students about why it’s wrong to harass girls.

“A mobile van is a fun and very powerful way to convey Parivartan’s messages to a wider audience within our target population,” said ICRW’s Madhumita Das, a senior technical specialist who manages Parivartan. “The campaign also gives us an opportunity to showcase the coaches and athletes who have been a part of the initiative since the beginning.”

So far, about 3,000 boys and girls as well as principals and teachers in 15 schools have participated in the van's interactive sessions, Das said. 

ICRW and its partners conceptualized Parivartan in 2008 and launched the intervention portion of the program last year. The effort uses cricket, India’s most popular sport, to teach boys to respect women and girls and help reduce abusive relationships. Modeled in part after the Futures Without Violence's "Coaching Boys into Men" program, Parivartan works with cricket coaches and community mentors to push messages against violence and for gender equality. The program is being implemented in 25 schools by the Mumbai School Sports Association and in community-based cricket programs by Apnalaya, an organization in Mumbai’s Shivaji Nagar community.

ICRW researchers are currently analyzing data gathered halfway through Parivartan to assess the program’s effectiveness. An evaluation of the campaign will begin in May, Das said.

“We have joined hands with Parivartan for a good cause,” said Iqbal Thakur, a Parivartan coach from Anjuman I- Islam English High school in south Mumbai, who attended the campaign launch. “Eve teasing happens, but if children are exposed to the correct messages at an early age, they are more likely to grow up into dignified, responsible citizens, who not only stay away from such behavior, but also become role models who raise their voice against injustice.”

Chandni Malik is the communications manager in ICRW’s Asia Regional Office.

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It was early December, the day after World AIDS Day, 2010. I was back in Beijing for the first time in 23 years, standing outside the entrance to the Great Hall of the People on Tiananmen Square. I had an official invitation in hand to a high-level consultation on China’s national response to the AIDS epidemic, which is increasingly affecting women and girls.  

My mind toggled back to my last visit to China in 1987, when the government had just decreed mandatory AIDS testing for foreign residents. At that point in the epidemic, Chinese public health authorities said the source of the HIV threat was outside of China and they relied on China’s strong heteronormative culture to protect its citizens from sexual transmission of AIDS. The government figured they could contain the threat by focusing on foreigners and a very small number of gay Chinese men – a highly stigmatized group in China, as elsewhere. Back then, AIDS was viewed predominantly as a “gay man’s disease.”

Fast forward to December 2010. Reports released by the Chinese government and UNAIDS on World AIDS Day indicated that HIV and AIDS in China have evolved much like other epidemics in Asia, transforming from one concentrated among groups most at risk for HIV, such as injection drug users, to a broader epidemic among the general population. Sexual transmission is now the primary mode of HIV infection in China: As of 2009, heterosexual transmission accounted for 42 percent of new cases and homosexual transmission for 32 percent. And emerging data show that patterns of risk are becoming increasingly complex, in part due to the rapidly escalating diffusion of HIV among men who have sex with men as well as with women. At the Great Hall event, government officials acknowledged the need to understand and address the complexity of China’s national epidemic.

So where does China go from here? As Chinese public health experts develop their national AIDS strategy, they may want to pay close attention to two related elements: the evolving nature of women’s vulnerability to HIV and the impact of stigma and discrimination in complicating an already complex situation.

Focusing on women is essential. Recent data indicate that a growing proportion of Chinese women are being infected with HIV through sexual transmission, from 30 percent in 2000 to 74 percent in 2009. HIV transmission within marriage now poses a credible threat to many Chinese women, particularly those wedded to men most at risk for HIV, such as migrant workers, men who have sex with men and injection drug users. Public health authorities’ efforts will go farther if they understand the role of power relationships between women and men, and how that can contribute to women’s vulnerability to HIV. They may also want to consider that social dynamics and sexual practices are fluid from setting to setting, and interact differently under different environmental conditions. This creates a multitude of “local” epidemics within China’s national epidemic – each requiring a well-tailored response. 

This, I believe, includes working with civil society to reduce stigmatization of men who have sex with men and increase services available to them. As I talked with people leading AIDS programming for corporations, multi-laterals and foundations, it became apparent that very little is known about this community of men in China. Service providers are perplexed about how to reach this population and their sexual partners, both male and female, with information and services. We’ve studied HIV-related stigma extensively at ICRW, and our research in Cambodia and across the world may be useful in designing effective programs.

It’s critical that China’s next national AIDS plan, which is currently under development, lays the groundwork for an AIDS-free society. And I’m confident that the country has the ability to do so through policy, research and programs that tackle the underlying causes of women’s and men’s vulnerability to HIV.

Sarah Degnan Kambou is president of ICRW.

An analysis of new findings from the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) affirms that an integrated approach – one that experts say should aim to prevent violence by addressing men's risk factors – is key to reducing men's use of violence against women.

Initial findings from the International Men and Gender Equality Survey (IMAGES) – to be released today – illustrate the varied experiences that lead some men to physically or sexually abuse an intimate female partner. The three-year study consisted of nearly 12,000 interviews with men and women ages 18 to 59 in Brazil, Chile, Croatia, India, Mexico and Rwanda about their health practices, parenting, relationship dynamics, sexual behavior and use of violence.

Researchers crafted the questions about violence based on existing data on the correlation between men’s use of violence, their experiences with it during childhood and social norms that dictate how they should act. While there have been numerous studies on men and violence, IMAGES provides a deeper look at factors associated with why some men are violent against women. Researchers asked men detailed questions about their experiences with violence as an observer and perpetrator. Women were interviewed on the matter, too.

“There are numerous social and cultural factors that contribute to men’s use of violence,” said ICRW’s Gary Barker, lead researcher on IMAGES. “Our methodology on IMAGES allowed us to explore a broad range of these with men and compare men’s responses with women’s from the same settings. This gave us a more accurate assessment of the factors and extent of violence.”

Experts say programs and policies that work to end violence against women could be more effective by understanding how some men view violence and the sometimes invisible social factors that drive their behavior.

“To truly reduce violence, program designers and policy makers should consider how to create more comprehensive interventions that take into account such things as men’s attitudes about gender, their childhood experiences of violence, their work-related stress and their use of alcohol,” said Barker, who in February will become international director of Instituto Promundo, a Brazilian nongovernmental organization that coordinates the Men and Gender Equality Policy Project with ICRW. IMAGES is a component of this project.

Contributing factors

To measure men’s use of violence against a partner, IMAGES applied a slightly modified version of the approach used in a pioneering 2005 World Health Organization (WHO) study on domestic violence. The 10-country study yielded some of the first comprehensive, multi-site data on the various forms of violence women experience at the hands of a male partner and its consequences. Ten to 70 percent of women surveyed said they had been physically abused by an intimate partner at some point in their lives.

For IMAGES, researchers asked men about specific types of violence, such as slapping, against their female partners. Women also were asked about their experiences with the same forms of violence. Between 25 to nearly 40 percent of the men surveyed said they had been violent with an intimate partner. Meanwhile, 27 to 41 percent of women said they had been abused by a man at least once in their lives, suggesting that in most cases, men’s reports of the violence they used were fairly accurate.

IMAGES results across all countries also showed that men who generally view themselves as superior to women are more likely to report physical and sexual violence against an intimate partner. The same was true for men who abused alcohol, witnessed violence in their childhood home and, except for Mexicans surveyed, those who felt stressed about work or income. Rwandan men were not asked about work stress.

“The IMAGES findings make an important contribution to existing knowledge about gender-based violence by bringing in men's perspectives about their experiences of violence in diverse settings, as well as their attitudes about women’s rights and roles within the household," said ICRW's Mary Ellsberg, vice president of research and programs and co-author of the WHO domestic violence study. "We hope to do additional analysis of the data in the future, to compare the experiences and attitudes of both men and women around these issues."

Laws about violence

Many governments worldwide are increasingly adopting legislation to combat violence against women. It’s the policy issue that has received the most attention in efforts, including by ICRW, to involve men in creating more equitable societies. And, IMAGES found it’s the issue most men have heard about, either through an advertisement or campaign.

Between 88 and 96 percent of men surveyed said they knew about laws related to violence against women in their countries, however this does not correlate with a decrease in their use of violence against their wives or girlfriends. IMAGES also shows the contradictory attitudes men have about existing laws related to violence: Despite their knowledge of the laws, the vast majority of men also thinks the laws make it too easy to bring charges against them.

“Given the relatively small number of men actually charged under those laws in all the countries, this opinion is a misperception,” Barker said. He added that IMAGES results suggest that some men don’t understand anti-violence policies and may see the laws as being against them. “We may need more long-term, nuanced public education targeting men about the laws."

Far fewer men surveyed for IMAGES reported hearing messages about other themes that might interest them, or that they might perceive as positive, such as promoting that men participate in care giving and be more involved fathers.

“While we can’t let men off the hook in terms of violence, we also need to consider the source of men’s violence,” Barker said. “Our policies need to understand these factors and design prevention strategies accordingly.”

Gillian Gaynair is ICRW’s writer/editor.