What they said!

It has been a year since we started conducting Gender Awareness sessions for children. We have spoken to more than 600 children so far. When we struggle to get a chance to talk to the students and when school authorities seem reluctant to allot time for our sessions, we feel disappointed and wonder whether it is worth the trouble we take.  School authorities are understandably worried about completing syllabus and  in their busy schedule are not always welcoming to allow us to address children on what they consider a ‘not so important topic.’

Such responses make us hesitate and postpone contacting school officials and when each one of us hold a full time job and have our own personal problems, it is easy  for us to put our passion for creating gender awareness in the back  burner.But ultimately what keeps us going and motivates us to continue our work is the feedback  we receive from the students after our awareness sessions. I thought of recording here some of the responses to remind us about the need to carry forward this mission.

So below, we have a collection of questions and comments that gave us insight into how students see what we do and what questions they had in mind.

When children come in for a gender awareness session they are excited about staying away from their academic classes.

Image Caption: Thanks for helping us bunk class!!!

We are happy to help 🙂

And similarly few more such ‘appreciations’ for helping them get out of class were obtained.

Image Caption: Thanks for coming and teaching us all this. Thanks for cutting our classes and we had a great time.

Such responses are understandable given that the unfortunate academic atmosphere steals the enthusiasm out of the curious children. But then hopefully the children get to learn something interesting and useful from our sessions.

Below are some of the heart-warming responses we received:

    

Image Caption: You have informed me that all boys and girls and transgenders are equal. I will give respect to girls and transgenders. It was a good program and it is useful for everyone. And I have understood that no one should tease or make them feel bad.

We are glad 🙂

Image Caption: Excellent presentation .We learnt the exact definition for “Gender”.

Image Caption: A boy can play football in school, why can’t a girl? It is great of you for making social awareness. Thank you for making us aware of gender. The society has to change.

Image Caption: This program on general awareness was really amazing . It made me aware of what is sex and gender . It also made me feel how men and women are equal in many aspects of life . And I would proudly say that I am a woman.

No one should be ashamed of what they are. You go catch the world girl!

Of course there were some questions like:

Image Caption: It is scientifically proved that men are stronger than women . Then how can you tell that men are equal to women?

which was answered, hopefully, to the satisfaction of the boy who raised the question.

We also came across some wistful questions:

Image Caption: Why aren’t girls allowed to choose careers that includes “travelling a lot”. Eg. Journalism. Why is that “Be safe” advice are given to girls with boys around? Why can’t advice be given to boys not to misbehave with girls?

(No, we did not give the be safe advice to the girls!)

Image Caption: Why are girls considered bad if they go out in the night.?

Image Caption: Why boys are always dominating girls. ?They think that girls are good for nothing. Why they think like that?

Image Caption: Why do boys feel that they are allowed to do anything they like such as harassing girls?

Image Caption: No football and basketball team in our school for girls.

One child was forthright!

Image caption:

• A session on teenage problems is required

• Teach something about Infatuation

• Sort out the differences between Infatuation & love.

 ——-This programme was very effective—-

We are now preparing for a session on physical attraction where we would be explaining how the adolescent brain works, a little about hormones and would also talk about harassment, stalking and consent.

They had a valid doubt:

Image Caption: This was very useful and good. I have a doubt: you are doing it as social service or earning money.

No money, we said. And then explained that all of us are holding full time jobs and set aside Saturdays for these sessions.We were applauded warmly.

Interactions with children  is always refreshing and when they know that it is alright for them to express their opinion freely , their enthusiasm is boundless. After every session when we regroup and think about the feedback received we feel energized and motivated to keep doing what we have started. And thus we keep going…..

Hello mam, it was really nice I expected something like this and came true because of this beautiful session. It has put a great change in us. We forget simple things while learning complicated problems and answers but this day gave us great opportunity to learn.Thank you.

The author can be contacted at equalgenderpro@gmail.com. Please contact us if you are interested in organizing Gender sensitization programmes in schools/colleges and workplaces.