Ravi Verma

ICRW is evaluating the implementation of India’s Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act of 2005 (PWDVA), which is designed to protect the rights of women who experience domestic violence and facilitate their access to justice. In collaboration with the Lawyers Collective Women’s Rights Initiative (LCWRI), we are monitoring efforts to improve the ability of key agencies to implement the law.

ICRW is working to document how various interventions conducted by LCWRI strengthen India’s overall response to violence. Interventions include capacity development workshops for law enforcers (police, protection officers and magistrates), legal aid to women facing violence at home, and awareness-building campaigns about the law among women and the public. ICRW is using surveys, interviews and group discussions in three major states to assess various stakeholders’ attitudes toward the law. ICRW is also designing a monitoring system to track the effectiveness of the PWDVA on a yearly basis.

The Parivartan program aims to reduce gender-based violence by working with men and boys through India’s popular sport of cricket. The program was based on Coaching Boys Into Men (CBIM), an initiative of the United States (US)-based Futures Without Violence (formerly Family Violence Prevention Fund) that engages coaches as positive role models and trains them to deliver messages to their male athletes about the importance of respecting women and understanding that violence never equals strength. Based on lessons from implementation of CBIM in the US, the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) developed and piloted an India-specific, cricket-based adaptation of the program: "Parivartan", which means transformation. The Mumbai-based program engaged cricket coaches and mentors in schools and the community to:

• Raise awareness about abusive and disrespectful behavior;
• Promote gender-equitable, non-violent attitudes; and
• Teach skills to speak up and intervene when witnessing harmful and disrespectful behaviors.

Findings from the study have been very encouraging—they have demonstrated a distinct positive shift in the attitudes of athletes as well as coaches and mentors towards gender equity and violence against women. Alongside the change in attitudes, there is a promising indication of behavioral change as well; however to sustain and amplify the translation of attitudinal change into behavioral change, a sustained long-term investment in the Parivartan program is an imperative.