{"id":344,"date":"2016-08-23T06:02:46","date_gmt":"2016-08-23T06:02:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/projects.itforchange.net\/prakriye\/?p=344"},"modified":"2017-02-15T11:48:08","modified_gmt":"2017-02-15T11:48:08","slug":"when-women-and-girls-come-together-reflections-from-the-prakriye-team-on-phase-i-of-dhwanigalu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/projects.itforchange.net\/prakriye\/2016\/08\/23\/when-women-and-girls-come-together-reflections-from-the-prakriye-team-on-phase-i-of-dhwanigalu\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWhen women (and girls) come together…\u201d: Reflections from the Prakriye team on Phase I of Dhwanigalu"},"content":{"rendered":"

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In Kannada, there is a proverb \u201cWhen<\/i> two<\/i> women come together, the household is ruined\u201d.<\/i> This proverb is not just an illustration of the deep-rooted misogyny in our culture but it is also a sharp comment on the way patriarchal structures practice \u2018divide and rule\u2019 over women. As facilitators of learning dialogues with adolescent girls that aim at strengthening their agency, autonomy and leadership, we feel that our experience of implementing Phase 1 of the training programme<\/a> makes us want to come up with a new proverb \u201cWhen women and girls come together, the the house of patriarchy<\/i> is shaken up\u201d.<\/i> Our experience over the past 6 months has revealed to us the extraordinary power of dialogue in enabling girls to question the gender norms, gender scripts and gender relations that were normalised in their socialisation process \u2013 thus challenging the discursive hold of patriarchy on their imaginations.<\/p>\n

When we started out, we had to invest a lot of effort in establishing rapport with the families of the girls, and then convincing the girls themselves that this was not a boring \u2018academic\u2019 class but a fun, new space for group discussion. As we had expected, the Icebreaker exercises<\/a> that focused on using digital photography and Table PCs attracted a lot of interest from the girls. They were not just excited by the opportunity to handle digital artefacts; they were also happy about how the homework assignments we gave them (to take photographs of women\u2019s work and men\u2019s work; and to interview individuals in their community about their idea of what a woman\u2019s role is) gave them an opportunity to step outside their homes. However, this exercise was not able to break caste-lines \u2013 lower-caste girls did not visit upper caste-neighbourhoods or speak to members of these groups. This is something we have to still figure out.<\/p>\n