Module 14 - Patriarchy, in my perspective

Summary

Kishoris have involved themselves with the team of HOSA HEJJE HOSA DISHE for a long time now. During this journey, there has been a significant improvement in Kishoris’ thought process and their ability to express themselves. Kishoris of the similar age group discuss the problems they may face and opportunities they come across in the group through world cafe-type activity to reflect their learnings. They also discuss ways to tackle those problems and increase the opportunities. Several models and charts which are drawn and constructed during group activities for each question have helped them to improve their way of thinking for the better.

Assumptions

1. Although few Kishoris express themselves well or communicate enough while they are in a group, there are many of them who still lack self-confidence.

2. Recently, many Kishoris have been absent in school.

3. Some Kishoris have voluntarily started sharing their views. The forces that suppress Kishoris need to be put down while strengthening Kishoris voices.

4. As the level of trust between us and them is increasing day by day, it is appropriate to now discuss sensitive issues at this stage.

5. There are Kishoris who try to dominate the groups by not letting fellow Kishoris to participate. And such dominating, self-centered Kishoris need to be watched before they do any harm.

6. Since we have an English lecture before our class, it takes 10 to 20 minutes of delay each time.

7. Since we haven’t shared the previous class audio interview with them, we are required to talk about it about it now.

Objective

Enable and empower them to express themselves to reflect their learnings till date on Patriarchy in HOSA HEJJE HOSA DISHE.

Process

Start the conversation in a creative manner to connect well with other Kishoris and explaining them the rules/norms - (10 minutes)

Tell them why they can’t present the audio recordings made in the past weeks. Saying - "We were busy and considering the high number of audio recordings, we could not edit it." Then split all Kishoris into four groups with each group having 6-7 Kishoris - (10 minutes)

We would then take each group to a different class where we have four counters already arranged. And in each counter, the adolescent girls are going to discuss about life which is more or less like a game of snake and ladder where snakes represents the problems and the hurdles that we face and how to solve those problems and ladder represents the growth opportunities which need to be grabbed and made use of to grow in life. Each group of Kishoris will go to all the counters and discuss the questions presented there.

Question of Counter 1 - If you think the life of girls of your age is like a game of snake & ladder, what kind of different snakes are there in it? (Probe: Then, the snake may be small or big, is there anything else that you can tell me? It need not really be from your own life; it could be from somewhere else too.)

Question of Counter 2 - If you think the life of girls of your age is like a game of snake & ladder, what kind of different ladders are there in it? (Probe: Then, the ladder may be small or big, is there anything else that you can tell me? It need not really be from your own life; it could be from somewhere else too.)

Question of Counter 3 - If you think the life of girls of your age is like a game of snake & ladder, how do you think you can decrease the number of snakes in it? (Probe: Do you think you can do something more and different? How do you think you can reduce the number of snakes in various places like personal life ex: family, friends etc.… and professional life ex: school, college, office etc.…?)

Question of Counter 4 - If you think the life of girls of your age is like a game of snake & ladder, how do you think you can increase the number of ladders in it? (Probe: Do you think you can do something more and different? How do you think you can reduce the number of snakes in various places like personal life ex: family, friends etc.… and professional life ex: school, college, office etc.…?) (40 minutes)

If time permits, we will escort the Kishoris back to their respective classrooms to show them two different colored charts. First one named patriarchal society (black colored) and the other non-patriarchal society (green colored). We offer two colored sketch pens.

After looking at these charts, you can tick/mark the kind of society you want to be in. The Kishoris are expected do this activity of ticking/marking one by one.

Depending on the chart of society they ticked, we will continue the conversation around that kind of society. For example, if they tick a non-patriarchal society first, we would talk to them about what and how the non-patriarchal society would look like.

If they tick on the patriarchal society, which is the present society we live in, there will be more snakes and less ladders. It would rather be a little difficult to achieve more. One can only imagine how deeply the patriarchy has rooted into our society that although you have a greater dreams and aspirations compared to men, it would rather become hard to turn those dreams into reality.

Post group activities, if we are running out of time, we could wind up the session saying we will meet up in the upcoming sessions.

Resources Required

1. Camera -1

2. Tripod - 1

3. Charts - 7

4. Sketch Pens - 2 Sets

5. Double sided tape

6. A4 Sheets - 24

Required Number of Facilitators

One main facilitator, two assistant facilitators

Input:

• Snake & ladder game charts

• Patriarchal charts

Output:

Notes on Kishoris conversational skills, thought process etc.