Ms Madhumita Das started her presentation at Maidan Summit 2011 with the observation that women of this generation realize that sport can help change things for them. She emphasised on the need to have qualified, trained and experienced coaches who would eventually mentor young girls and women in overcoming social taboos and propel a sense of dignity within them.
Through a video-presentation called Parivartan (Hindi: change), she upheld the view that sport is a platform where a lot of exchange takes place, and this exchange could be tapped to drive change. Elaborating on examples from ICRW’s programme, she explained how with proper mentoring, boys and young men, when brought together with girls and young women, agree that the latter should be given equal opportunity in sport. She added that it could change the way they look at masculinity and respect differences.
Changing mindsets, rebuilding lives: Celebrating 25 years of First World Cup ...
Maidan Summit 2011 - Madhumita Das, International Centre for Research on Women
1. Engaging Coaches to Enhance
Gender Equity: Learning from
Parivartan
Sports & Gender Workshop
2011
2. Background
• Sport can be an important tool for social
empowerment
• Many program trying to address the issue
• integrating women and girls into the athletic
sphere remains a challenge in India as well as
globally
– deeply-rooted expectations about women’s place in
society and
– challenges and barriers she faces in the sports arena
4. Attitude Towards Girls & Women
• Girls and women don’t loose THEN?
•Girls always feel
their temper like boys and
ashamed to perform
men specially in front of boys
• Girls need little support to •Boys have force, power
perform well in their life and speed
than boys •Girls don’t have skills and
techniques
• Girls are more disciplined •Girls hesitate to share
• Girls are simple and shy their feeling
5. Coaching Girls & Boys be together?
• Most of them disagreed and the reason:
– If girls are there in the coaching, my boys will loose concentration
on the game.
– Girls are ashamed to do anything in front of the boys.
– This age is very crucial for boys and girls as the change in body
takes place which is a problem for us.
– If boy plays well, girl’s starts loving him. This becomes a problem
as it will become a place where there will be more of all these
and less of cricket coaching.
– It’s difficult to bring the girls where the senior boys are there.
– There are some problems from the society. If boys and girls are
together, people take it in a wrong way, even if they are siblings.
6. What is Parivartan?
• The Hindi word for ‘change’
• Program model using influential power of coaches to be
mentors and role models for young men and boys
• Promotes gender equity, respect for women and girls and
reduce gender-based violence
7. Selection of Coaches and Mentors
• We recruited 46 coaches & 33 mentors in
Mumbai
– Card Series
– Coaches Handbook
– Diary
– Banners
– Posters, pamphlets, flyers
8. Changes in Masculine norms
85
69 69
62
46
42
39
23
Men & women will There are times Men needs more To be men one
never be equal when men needs sex than women needs to be tough
to beat his wife
Baseline Followup
9. Moving in the Right Direction
46
23 23 23
4 4
High gender Disapproves Condone violence
equitable attitude controling women against women &
girls
Baseline Follow-up
10. Moving in the Right Direction
• Majority of coaches and mentors reported that:
– Majority of the coaches stated “girls should be given
an equal opportunity in sports”
– All the coaches are confident in their ability to tell their
boys to stop teasing and making derogatory comments
towards girls and women.
– coaches said they will talk to boys about stopping
violence against girls and women.
My responsibility is to help boys to become gender sensitive. All these years I
was hesitant to coach girls in my school but now I have the confidence to do so
and I know I have an important role in this entire process (Coach, 26 years)
11. The Exceptional
A trained coach, 60 years of age described the benefit of
gender equitable society by bringing both of them at the
same platform:
– that boys and girls would be able to stay as one (equal).
– we would be able to see girls gain excellence in sport.
– co-operation: they will be able to lend a hand with each other.
This is the most important aspect.
• I feel we should always encourage them to play together
if we try to separate boy and girl it will be a wrong step.
We have to discuss a lot with them about these things. (A
coach and science-Maths teacher, 31 years age)
12. Change Score: High Gender Equitable
Attitude
27
26
25
22
12 12
8 7
School CSA School Comparison Community CSA Community
Comparison
Baseline Follow-up
13. Change Score: Intention to Intervene
5.56
5.4 5.41
5.35
5.08
5.01
4.87 4.87
School CSA School Comparison Community CSA Community
Comparison
Baseline Follow-up
14. Conclusion
• Sports is an effective platforms to engage adolescent
boys on issues of gender and violence
• The positive deviant coaches as role model shows
promising effort to change the attitude around
norms and enhance safer space for girls and women
• Card series sessions was effective in bringing
positive shift in attitude, knowledge and self-
efficacy towards gender, sexuality and violence
• These attitude and self-efficacy are precursors for
bringing gender equity and more space for girls and
women in our society.
15. The goal
• Organizational Deployment
– Leverage sports organizations and hold sensitization
workshops
– Inclusion of Parivartan training in the coaches’ curriculum
– Inclusion of physical education teachers
– Bringing women and girls component into it
• Scaling Up
– Creating a Parivartan component in national sports
programs