Parivartan-Empower Against Abuse

In 2019, a young and promising veterinarian, Priyanka Reddy, was brutally raped, murdered and burnt in the city of Hyderabad, Telangana, India. This monstrous act was committed by young adults that were barely out of their teen years. In every culture, children at 3 years old are considered representatives of the divine. Something changed terribly in Priyanka’s rapists that as they grew into young adults, they committed this heinous crime.

My story isn’t as severe, but I have endured inappropriate, abusive behavior and patriarchy all my life. And I know a lot of women and members of the LGBTQ community have similar stories. Growing up, we are fed unhealthy beliefs and attitudes that women and other genders are somehow lesser than men. In Priyanka’s case, sadly, she became less than human. These toxic beliefs around gender are the root cause of gender violence and inequality. We want to change that-by shaping healthy mindsets from young, impressionable ages.

With that aim, my co-founders and I, all alumni of Indian Institute of Management (IIMs), came together to form Parivartan-Empower Against Abuse in 2020.

We wanted to connect with children aged 10-21 and give them an alternative narrative to what was being taught in society, in movies and home about gender and violence. The values we would like to inculcate are respect for all genders, healthy relationships, managing emotions and saying ‘No’ to abuse. We did this through a gender sensitization curriculum that delivered these concepts in an immersive manner using stories, role play and active participation.

What makes our training so effective is its simplicity. The core premise of the training is “Human Rights” or “Manav Adhikaar”. When we view our behavior and beliefs through the lens of Human Rights, it is easy to differentiate appropriate behavior – even for children as young as 10 years. Our facilitators examine and identify their own bias during training which makes them powerful stewards and proponents of gender equality.

This is what we have achieved in 2022:

• Trained >100 facilitators who have in turn trained 20,000+ students across 19 locations in 7 states (Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa, Karnataka, Rajasthan).
• In 2022, three professors from reputed academic institutes – London Business School, UChicago and San Diego State University conducted an impact assessment study which proved that the curriculum is effective in changing mindsets on abuse across all genders. Their study has also provided insights into how we can further improve the curriculum and our program – e.g. by building self-confidence in girls and providing vocational training to empower girls.
• In 2022, we also won a grant from Cigna USA’s Community Ambassador Fellowship foundation to implement the program in India.
• In 2023, we are closing negotiations to collaborate with the State Government of Punjab to start training their counselors and registered social workers to implement the training in government schools.

But what we have achieved is a small drop in a country of billion people. One of the reasons I started this initiative is because men in our social circle said, “we are sorry this problem will not go away for another 150 years.” Our hope is that if these concepts are taught and reinforced in every single child in India, we can make a huge dent against gender violence and gender inequality in India in 15 years.

When these children enter society as adults, there will be no victims of abuse and no perpetrators.

In 2023, we want to add 110 facilitators to our existing team. These facilitators will train 350,000 children across India. We want to reach out to education departments across the country to allow us to train in their schools. More than 85% of the donations go towards training the facilitators and paying them for their efforts to train children.

The cost of the project is INR 5.05 crores ($600,000) over the next 2-3 years. In Phase 1, we need Rs 1.2 crores to train facilitators and implement the children’s training for the next 3 months.

10 sessions, 1 hour each, with a cost of Rs. 141/child (and regular reinforcement subsequently)- that’s the cost of creating a gender equal society in 15 years. We need your help to make this a reality. We have always thought of Parivartan-Empower Against Abuse as a people’s movement. We, the co-founders, couldn’t have made any progress if not for the generosity and help from our donors and supporters. Please support us in creating a gender equal India.