Breaking and Making: Pushing Limiting Gender Norms in the Village of Karola

At Breakthrough, we have worked for 25 years now towards rising against gender-based violence through several interventions and programmes—media initiatives, campaigns, deep community engagement, and now, we are working at scale with government partnerships. We work to build an agency of change in adolescents and youth, who can rise to break down walls of gender-based violence and discrimination. Following a socio-ecological model, we work with parents, mothers’ groups and other community stakeholders to build safe and supportive spaces for empowered adolescents—amplifying the voices of girls and realising their agency to live lives of their choices. Our work over time has created better intergenerational dialogues, created space for mothers to rise up and support the dreams of daughters, and stop, change, steer the course away from one of discrimination and violence to one of support.

Over the years we have seen the difference it makes to help adolescents (especially girls), youth, and women believe in their voices, agency, aspirations; so they are able to negotiate, take part in decision making processes at home, in the community, and take charge of their own lives. This drives norm change in and around them, gradually breaking the dominant culture and violence holding them back from reaching their full potential. 

Rural women face gender discrimination manifold in absence of key support systems to build their agency, their understanding of gender-based violence and discrimination, and of spaces where they can come together to build support for each other. It remains of primary importance to develop this awareness and come together, as a collective, to be able to initiate change and push forward towards norm change—breaking down regressive barriers and restrictions. We encourage connection and building of women’s groups, and (Kishori) adolescent girls’ groups where women and girls can share their collective voices, promote a support system, take up issues about participation in community spaces and build leadership—all that remains at the core of being able to drive change. An instance of such girl power can be seen in the story below—what happens when even one girl leads, and many women rise together. 

A Chaupal is ideally a community space, and as we know, like some other South Asian countries, every village in India has a Chaupal–a space for the community to gather and talk and share opinions. Normally, the Chaupal itself is a masculine place and not open to women. In the small village of Karola in Haryana where we work, traditions reign supreme, and following the same, the Chaupal was never open to women. So, where men and boys found an outlet, a stage to speak freely, women and girls’ thoughts and wishes remained ignored, their voices were just a murmur, hushed not by will but circumstance.

But one wind of change can indeed change traditions. A local resident Payal, with the help of our Breakthrough Community Developer was courageous enough to suggest a celebration of Women’s Day at the Chaupal. The village, which had only recently appointed their first female Sarpanch, Sunita, could finally consider opening the floor beyond men. Team members from Breakthrough invited women from all over the village and while some hesitated, others took the opportunity, claiming the space they deserved. Even some boys joined in, showing their support—the tides were changing with the times. Women took to the stage, sang, and danced, took selfies and the Chaupal opened as a space where women can get together and discuss their issues. It became a case in study for other villages too, such as Jhanswa in Jhajjar district, where there has been a lot of resistance to allowing women inside such spaces. It requires strategic dialogue and programmatic intervention at different levels of the communities—adolescents, adults, Panchayat (local government) members, frontline workers, schools—to ensure that gender inequity is called out and challenged. It is exactly this holistic approach that brings change to archaic, rigid traditions in areas like Karola and Jhanswa (where inclusivity is now increasing). As girls and women find themselves as recognised members of their communities, they find newer confidence in themselves and their ability to make decisions—not just about their lives but about their communities and issues in general.

Every ounce of support we receive changes the game further.

About Breakthrough

Breakthrough makes gender-based violence unacceptable by transforming the culture that permits violence. We work with nearly 2.3 million adolescents in schools and communities to mould gender norms and beliefs before they solidify into behaviour. As we build their capacity by fostering aspiration, leadership, agency and negotiation skills, we enable a generational shift towards a gender-equal culture. Our work in communities is contributing to the steady rise in the age of marriage and the number of girls who stay in school.

Our mission is led by young people aged 11 to 25. As they rise against gender-based violence, we support them with media tools that shape public narratives and inspire people to build a world of equality, dignity and justice.