Civic schools’ GEM of an idea to promote gender equality

At 11.30 am, Class 7 students at Ghatla Municipal School in Chembur are bent over a game of snakes and ladders. Team A goes up a ladder on reaching the third block, which says ‘Celebrated a girl’s birth’. Team B gets unlucky on block 29 as the snake bites them for ‘Blaming the girl when boys tease her’.

Later, the teacher Vaishali Vagh deliberately lets her teacup fall. The front-benchers rush to pick up the pieces. She uses the opportunity to explain the importance of mending broken relationships and not tolerating violence.

Such innovative methods are being used to make civic school students question gender biases and rethink social norms during workshops as part of the ‘Gender Equity Movement in Schools’ (GEMS).