Building a Culture of Gender Justice in Uttar Pradesh (India)

Building an Empowered Culture of Gender Justice in Uttar Pradesh (India)

(Left to right) Aarohini’s program manager Priyanka, posing with the children and teachers at UPS Nayagaon, Newada after a field visit.

December 2023 - Central to Mona Foundation's approach is the belief that sustainable development must begin and be led by local communities. While all social action is directed towards visibly improving some aspect of life, we believe its primary goal is to develop people’s capacity to make decisions about their own development and then to implement them at increasingly higher levels of complexity as they learn through their own experience. This is a long-term process that involves learning to work towards goals in a systematic way, to build on strengths, to foster collaborative relationships in service to the common good, and to apply lessons learned through experience. Providing our grassroots partners with long-term support enables them to learn through experience over time, to continually build capacity at the individual, organizational, and community levels, to address needs with increasingly more complex solutions, and to ultimately scale their services and reach. Our partnership with Study Hall Educational Foundation is a great example of what is possible.

A leader in transformative education for nearly 40 years, and Mona partner since 2008, Study Hall Educational Foundation (SHEF) works to enable all students, especially girls, to see themselves as equal persons, worthy of respect, and with agency to crtically examine and overcome limiting social norms. Founded by visionary educator Dr. Urvashi Sahni (photo left), SHEF has grown from humble beginnings into a highly regarded, multi-faceted organization with an impressive network of initiatives and institutions that reimagine education and promote gender justice to empower all community members. Since it began, SHEF has trained over 100,000 teachers and impacted over 5,000,000 students through direct and indirect initiatives in Uttar Pradesh and its neighboring states of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

Mona Foundation supports five SHEF programs: Aarohini Girls Education & Empowerment Program, Digital Study Hall, GyanSetu Community Education Centers (one-room schools), scholarships to Prerna Girls School and Study Hall College, and India’s Daughters Campaign. While each contributes to building a culture of gender justice, the focus of this article is on the impressive development of the Aarohini program.

A Comprehensive Program to Systematically Eradicate Gender Discrimination

The Aarohini Girls Education and Empowerment initiative is fundamentally a program for training teachers, equipping them with both the mindset and tools necessary to critically analyze the social and political aspects of their lives, as well as understand the systemic roots of their oppression. The program aims to create a chain of positive influence with teachers as agents of change, who in turn build the capacity of their students to recognize and challenge gender discrimination and engage parents to ensure that the rights of their students are protected. The intensive workshops and discussions included in this training are designed to empower teachers by enhancing their awareness of gender dynamics in their lives and communities. It seeks to broaden their perspective on the purpose of education and their role as educators and provides them with the resources to integrate a gender lens into their teaching. Once trained, teacher are supported to conduct regular critical dialogues with the students in their schools.

Training is essential in instilling confidence in teachers to be catalysts—through mobilizing students, parents and the wider community to engage in a deeper dialogue about girls’ autonomy and protecting student rights. This space also encourages teachers to share their own lived experiences and incidents from their personal lives, showing how they have experienced gender inequities while emphasizing a shared connection. If a teacher needs more guidance, or runs into an issue, they can reach out to SHEF’s One Stop Center (Women’s helpline) which provides continuous support through phone calls and WhatsApp.

Ultimately, Aarohini goes beyond being an education and empowerment initiative for girls; it functions as a comprehensive system dedicated to systematically eradicating discrimination faced by adolescent girls. The program operates on the belief that, through self-awareness, a nurturing and empathetic environment, and a culture of open dialogue, girls and boy can attain positive life outcomes. While the initial iteration of the Aarohini program worked to educate and empower girls to recognize, resist and overcome the social forces repressing them, the second iteration now seeks to bring boys into the wider conversation and prepare teachers working in co-ed schools to address issues of gender injustices in the classroom and in the wider community.

Building capacity to educate and empower girls across Uttar Pradesh

When Mona's partnership with SHEF began in 2008, they were refining a girls-centered curriculum at their Prerna Girls school in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh (UP). By 2011, this had evolved into the Aarohini Girls Education and Empowerment Program, rooted firmly in the philosophy that girls must receive an education that teaches them to critically examine the role and construct of gender in their own lives and communities. The next year, in collaboration with the UP Ministry of Education, SHEF expanded the program into a dozen state residential schools for low-income girls (called Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya or KGBV) in Uttar Pradesh. As this collaboration grew, more schools were added over time until in late 2022, the Government of Uttar Pradesh adopted the Aarohini curriculum for use in ALL public schools in the state. This includes implementing the program in:

All 746 KGBV residential schools for low-income girls in grades 6 to 8 , training over 2,000 teachers, and reaching over 74,000 girls.
All 250,000+ public schools across the state.

For context, the state of Uttar Pradesh is the most populated state in India with 232 million people. If it were a country, Uttar Pradesh would be the fifth largest in the world, rivaling the size of Brazil. The population is also relatively young with a median age of 23.9 years. With such a sizeable percentage of young people, education can have a significant impact in addressing outdated cultural norms and evolving a more equitable society.

Mona is proud to be Aarohini's primary supporter and contributing, in partnership with SHEF and its collaborators, to systematically building a culture of gender justice in Uttar Pradesh.

Implementing Aarohini in 746 KGBV residential schools for low-income girls

SHEF is now in process of training the 2,000 KGBV teachers across Uttar Pradesh to use the Aarohini pedagogy in their classrooms. This will allow them to form supportive relationships with their students and create a safe space for them to discuss critical topics and share their experiences of gender discrimination, including physical and sexual abuse at home. They will also be trained to handle any cases of abuse that may arise and equipped with knowledge of legal rights and the constitution to fight against child marriage and violence against girls. The goal of training is to empower these teachers to become strong advocates for girls' rights and proactive members of the community, supported by a network of local organizations to combat gender-based violence against their students.

As of June 2023, 783 KGBV teachers from 75 districts had completed a three-day residential training held in the cities of Lucknow and Prayagraj to:

Help teachers gain a social and political understanding of gender and the way it impacts their lives and communities;
Reframe and expand their understanding of the purpose of education and their role as teachers;
Understand the theory and practice of critical feminist pedagogy and critical dialogue; and
Provide them the tools to build a gender lens in their students, engage parents, and mobilize the community.

The teachers also received a set of videos and a curriculum to support them in the classroom. During this session teachers also share their 37 experiences and incidents from their own lives that show how they have experienced gender inequality in their lives.

The trained teachers are now conducting regular critical dialogues in their schools. During the training, 30 teachers reached out for assistance with personal issues, and they received support from Aarohini counselors and one-stop centers (Women’s helpline). The critical dialogue classes witnessed a significant participation of girls, resulting in the prevention of 3 child marriage cases by the Aarohini team.

Monika: A Teacher’s Feedback After the Aarohini Training

When the Aarohini team inquired Monika about the importance of gender justice training post pandemic, she shared a distressing reality: the number of child marriages had increased since the lockdown. She recounted the heartbreaking story of one of her students who had become a victim of child marriage and subsequently became pregnant. Inspired by the Aarohini training, the teachers took a proactive approach and brought the student back to school, encouraging her to continue her education, and supported her as best as possible. Because of a change in their hearts and minds, these teachers felt comfortable taking the initiative to bring this young student back and urge her to stay, increasing her educational opportunity and agency.

Neelam’s Early Intervention Saves Minors from Child Marriage

Neelam, a teacher from Sitapur, reported a disturbing situation during a zoom call with Aarohini coordinators. She informed the team that some people from the village had visited her school, accompanied by a minor who told Neelam that her marriage had been scheduled. Neelam protested, emphasizing that the girl was too young for marriage. Subsequently, Neelam admitted the girl to the school and convinced her parents to postpone her marriage. She told the parents that legal action is within the young girl’s rights if they proceeded with the marriage against her wishes. Neelam’s experience is one of many, as various teacher testimonials emphasize how critical Aarohini training is in saving young girls from the institution of child marriage.

Implementing Aarohini in all 250,000+ public schools across the state

SHEF is working closely with government officials to develop a comprehensive plan that addresses the logistical, financial and educational challenges of implementing a new curriculum in such a large number of schools. The plan will likely involve training for teachers, development of educational materials, and close coordination with government officials to ensure the curriculum is integrated seamlessly into existing educational systems. The focus will be on ensuring that the curriculum is adopted effectively and efficiently without diluting its quality, to ultimately improve the education of girls across the state.

Educating Boys and Men to be Advocates for Gender Justice

As part of the work being done, the Aarohini program aims to educate boys to become advocates for gender justice. This year, SHEF’s team selected 86 boys from the 43 Upper Primary Schools (UPS) to become champions of gender justice in their communities. These boys participated in the first-ever boys’ camp, cultivating an environment that allows them to reflect on the different gendered experiences in their community, what they can do to address these issues, and how to challenge oppressive societal norms.

Last year SHEF invited other non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to form a Feminist Coalition to mobilize and educate men and boys on becoming advocates for gender justice. Over 40 NGOs and government officials participated. This year, the Coalition aims to organize events that foster cross fertilization of ideas and resources among partner organizations.

Arjun’s Story: Advocating for His Sister’s Education

Arjun resides in Bhagwatipur village with his family, including his parents and younger sister. From a young age, he witnessed his father abusing his mother both mentally and physically, a distressing occurrence that unfortunately became routine for him. Unaware of the severe consequences, Arjun and his sister endured the situation passively, adversely affecting both their mental health and education. Because he was a boy, Arjun was able to continue his education, while his sister remained at home, assisting their mother with household chores. Positive change occurred when Arjun began attending Critical Dialogue Sessions regularly. Empowered by these sessions, he confronted his father about the abuse, subsequently supporting his mother and sister in household responsibilities. Arjun fought for his sister's education, successfully enrolling her in school. Currently in the 9th grade, Arjun actively advocates for education in his village and inspires other children to pursue schooling.

Addressing gender issues in GyanSetu communities

The Aarohini team has also been actively engaged with the families and communities associated with SHEF's GyanSetu program which supports out-of school kids in urban slums and rural villages to get up to grade level and transition into public school. In the first half of 2023, the team organized 30 meetings, involving more than 480 community members, across 19 GyanSetu centers. In addition to these gatherings, Aarohini facilitators worked closely with GyanSetu teachers, supporting their development as gender activists and community leaders. GyanSetu teachers are regularly trained by the Aarohini team on gender issues.