Anand Pawar's Workshop on Gender for PSS Staff and Students

Mr. Anand Pawar from Pune based Samyak Communication Centre conducted a workshop on gender in Pragat Shikshan Sanstha on 18 and 19 August. On the first day the workshop was for the students from classes 8 to 10 and on the second day it was for the PSS staff.

Mr. Pawar has worked in India and internationally for gender equality, empowerment, self awareness and non violence. He regularly conducts trainings for teachers on gender socialization. He feels that teacher trainings are important for teaching children equality from an early age.

He showed through many examples how gender inequality still persists in our society. A boy and a girl are different only in their sexes at birth but society expects different things from them and raises them, labels them differently. A woman has to be tolerant, sacrificing and weak while a man has to be strong, brave and ambitious.

In today’s patriarchal society all the benefits are man centric. Men control women’s work, resources, freedom to roam, reproduction and sexuality. This won’t change immediately, however it is very important to take small steps towards it was the main take away of the workshop.

Mr. Pawar asked young boys and girls to make lists of the house work they do to make them aware of the descrimination while in the teachers’ workshop he encouraged teachers to think how they can incorporate the element of equality in their teaching.

He showed an animation film ‘Once upon a Boy’ depicting how the society affects children and the interview of Kamala Bhasin on gender from the TV show Satyamev Jayate.