Gender Champions in Educational Institutions
Gender socialization of both boys and girls begins early, and it is important to initiate change processes at a young age to shape attitudes and transform behaviours. Schools and colleges play a major role in this regard, because students spend large amounts of time engaged with peers in such settings. Creating positive social norms in educational institutions that value girls and their rights is important to improve the well-being of girls and achieve long-term and sustainable social change.
India is home to around 232 million individuals’ aged l5-24 years, who account for 19.15% of the country's population. Engaging with these young boys and girls is crucial to help them critically assess notions of masculinity and question prevailing gender inequities. We need to tap into the goodness and sense of justice of these young boys and girls, and give them tools for maintaining those gifts as they encounter people and experiences that are different from their own.
In order to promote gender equality, guaranteed by Article 15 of the Indian Constitution, we need to change the mode of interaction at all levels – home, school, work place and so on. To increase the outreach for creating an environment that fosters equal treatment, Government of India envisages engagement of Gender Champions in all schools and colleges across the country.
This is a joint initiative of the Ministry of women and Child Development and Ministry of Human Resource Development.
Vision
Gender Champions are envisaged as responsible leaders who will facilitate an enabling environment within their academic institutions where all are treated with dignity and respect. They will strengthen the potential of young girls and boys to advocate for gender equality and monitor progress towards gender justice.
Objective
The broad mandate of a Gender Champion is to provide an integrated and interdisciplinary approach to understanding the social and cultural constructions of gender that shape the experiences of women and men in society.
The aim is to make the young boys and girls gender sensitive and create positive social norms that value the girls and their rights.
Roles and Responsibilities of a Gender Champion
The responsibilities of the Gender Champion will include the following:
- Provide overall guidance to the peer group in integrating /mainstreaming gender in all activities of the Institution in the form of focused group discussions, debates, poster competitions etc.
- Engage a variety of stakeholders from the school, college, civil society organizations, women's groups and media in gender mainstreaming activities.
- Identify gaps in college activities vis-a-vis gender, and make recommendations on how to address these gaps, e.g., observe classrooms to detect bias in interactions
- Promote Gender Champion Club in their educational institutions and undertake innovative activities.
- Organize awareness programmes on various gender issues including legislations to influence behaviour change. This could be facilitated through workshops' theme based plays, films, painting competition, etc.
- Organize annual function or college fests on theme of gender equality and women's empowerment and encourage students to sign up and express their support for gender justice and equality in attractively designed Gender Champion booths.
- Organize exposure visits to various public service institutions to facilitate knowledge about gender issues as they affect diverse populations.
- Popularize phone numbers of such services as police helpline, women helpline, hospitals among students.
- Arrange for providing necessary Iife skill education and information/guidance about existing public services to their fellow students.
- Demonstrate knowledge of important Govemment schemes, events, legislation, and court rulings which has a major impact on the treatment and experiences of diverse groups.
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Document best practices to measure the extent of behaviour change and display the same through exhibitions, fests, annual magazines etc.
Other details to become a Gender Champion can be accessed from https://www.ugc.gov.in/pdfnews/8176976_guidelines-for-gender-champions.pdf.
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