Anand took the participants on a journey of learning, understanding, and building perspective on issues that youth struggle with every day and have no one to talk to about.
Day 2 in the Play for Peace training in Jaipur started to address some very important questions, such as:
- What does it mean to be a boy or girl in Jaipur?
- What are the privileges and restrictions that are faced by men and women?
- How do male priority and patriarchy relate to power and control and how does it affect the genders?
To help support these discussions, the team included Mr. Anand Pawar who is the Executive Director of SAMYAK, which is a Pune-based communication and resource center on gender, masculinities, health, and development. Anand is also an international consultant to the UN on gender identities and patriarchy. Anand took the participants on a journey of learning, understanding, and building perspective on issues that youth struggle with every day and have no one to talk to about. He started with the question, “What does it mean to be a boy/girl in Jaipur?” and he helped the participants listen to each other. This was followed by a parliament-like debate on the need for gender equality and an exercise with the words participants associated with “Purush” (men) and “Stree” (women). Some participants said the words in the Stree box devalue people compared to those in the Purush box. They also pointed to the balance of position and power favoring men. This was followed by a dialogue about how social constructs impact and pressure both men and women to act in certain ways. He helped them see how these beliefs and perceptions provide men with opportunities, while for many women, multiple levels of caste, religion, and social norms prevent them from exploring many opportunities. The next discussion was on how privileges and limitations are used to maintain the gender construct. In groups, the participants discussed these issues and discovered that privileges for men become limitations for women. This led to the final discussion of the day on how patriarchy is aimed at preserving male dominance.
It is perpetuated in three main ways: (1) naming male children as heirs to property, (2) centering privileges around the needs of men, and (3) exerting power and control over women’s work, resources, mobility, sexuality, and reproduction. The day concluded with video clips of Kamla Bhasin from the TV series "Satyamev Jayte" explaining how patriarchy makes men less human, and Anand showing how the patriarchal system operates.
