Awareness Session on Sex Selection for Students

Aid for change is association with MASUM organized a session on gender equality for 9th standard students of Bhuleshwar Vidyalaya, in Malsiras village on 5th Aug 2014. VMWare employees Amol and Madhura volunteered for this event and addressed the students on the sensitive issue of Sex Selection.

Initially the session started with a few games like ball catching, threading a needle, rangoli making which helped in breaking the ice with the children and in making the communication more interactive with them. This was followed by a small video which was basically on the issue of sex selection which was taken up as a point for discussion with the students. We created awareness about the gender stereotypes which are present in the society by relating to their own households and asking questions from their day to day life and making them aware of how they are unknowingly and many times unwillingly, becoming a part of it.  Examples like, “How a boy goes outside to play while a girl remains at home and helps her mother in the household activities” were discussed. Upon asking girls whether they like to play outside or not, majority of them showed interest in playing outside, like the boys do.

It was really a very enlightening session for them. Amol and Madhura used audio visual aids and props very well to hold the students attention. It was received well as per the student’s interactions. And to wind up the session, all boys and girls were asked to identify 3 things each that they will change in their daily life to break the gender stereotypes.

 “I will accompany my father when he will go outside for bank related work”.

                                                                                        –  A girl student

“I will serve water and also make tea when some guest will come to my house”.

                                                                                           –   A boy student

To take it forward, we are planning to replicate the same in other 14 schools where the gender education programme is running in Purandar block of Pune district.

Embracing the New with the Old

Padkai: For the adivasi villages nestled in the hills overlooking the Dimbhe Dam, Padkai has been a traditional practice of growing paddy rice along the hill slopes during the monsoon. A group of eight to ten people work in rotation on each other’s field using makeshift stone embankments to trap the water.

Since the economics to develop land for Padkai where the gradient was steep was not feasible for locals, a limited amount of land was been utilized under this traditional practice and provided rice that would last a household for a period of 6 months.

With dogged advocacy by Swiss Aid at the state level, the local partnering NGO Shashwat could convince the government how this traditional practice would benefit the Dimbhe Dam by increasing its lifespan. Under the ‘Catchment Development Programme,’ officials were made aware of the important role Padkai could play by stopping silt from the hills to enter the dam waters and help in soil preservation.
Sensitized to these benefits, today the government provides financial assistance to develop more land under Padkai. Last year 188 hectares was made available and the target is to make an equal measure if not more land available every year.

Among the beneficiaries to this government initiative are about 80 families belonging to the Hindu Mahadev Koli tribal community that reside in Bohirvadi Village. After the government intervention they have gained access to more land and better stone embankment technology since the past four years. Grain that would last for barely six months now provides sustenance for more than a year. “Earlier we used to get about one sack – 100 quintals – from the field to survive for the year. This has now gone up nearly five fold after we have adopted the new model of Padkai,” says eighty year old Shivaji Boipure, fondly called as ‘Police Patil’ in the village since he has been the overseer of village affairs for many years.

With rice grain to last for an entire year and also gift to friends and relatives, this village is now less susceptible to the evils of migration. Earlier families left behind in the village were usually left destitute when the sole breadwinner took up a job in the city and neglected to provide. Since most of the people in this village like their counterparts in the hills are located at a distance from the dam waters and hail from a farming background, they don’t engage in fishing. Padkai for them remains the chief source of livelihood along with collection seasonal forest produce like ‘Hirda’ seeds which are sought after for their medicinal value.