Mukti Organized Gender Sensitization Workshop Under Project VOICE

Mukti in association with “AID” has organized a two days workshop, 11^th and 12^th December 2021on gender sensitization under project VOICE at Purba Sridharpur. The trainer Ms. Paromita, field coordinator Ms. Amuna and VOICE Project coordinator Ms. Nandita Jayraman along with 20 participants participated in the workshop.

Project VOICE has been aimed to bring a basic idea of gender discrimination in the community and sensitize them to cut down the negative impact of discrimination( like child marriage, domestic violence, trafficking etc) in the interior areas of Sundarban.

In Mathurapur II block, 20 villages from 10 GPs have been selected as a project area. With one woman member from each village, a women’s action group (WAG) has been formed. According to the project planning, this group will lead the project activities in their community.

As per the planning, this workshop has been arranged to introduce the idea of gender discrimination in society and also will arrange to introduce the idea of gender discrimination in society.

Ms. Chowdhury has been present as a facilitator to engage these women in several activities for developing the basic concept of gender discrimination.

One by one, all are introduced by a small game where everyone draws a picture to describe themselves. This process helped them to open up and be free to express their thoughts.

After that, several activities have been performed to find out the differences between men and women based on their daily activities, personality, behavior etc. This also helps to understand the gender role in society and how discrimination is performed by society at different levels. The concept of SEX and Gender is also explained with various examples.

Gender discrimination plays a major in inciting violence in society. On the 2nd day of the workshop, the classification of domestic violence was explained by Ms. Paromita. There are 4 major types of Violence that take place according to the level of discrimination. These are Physical violence, Sexual Violence, Psychological violence and economical abuse.

During the detailed discussion, some major pathways have been shown to diminish such issues with the highest possibilities. The application of the Domestic violence act has been explained in detail.

During the case study, participants also shared their experiences and throughout the process, they understand the importance of working as a team. Team building is one of the major and safe ways to protest against domestic violence or any kind of gender discrimination. Strategic planning by a team can be more powerful to resolve such issues in a more peaceful and effective way.

In the last phase of the workshop, the idea of organizing a campaign was introduced among the participants. All the participants assured their participation in such campaigns. In the future, they will take the initiative to aware the community about gender discrimination and will also take an active role to identify the issues or violence based on discrimination among society.