Promoting Gender Transformative Approaches

The CARM-DAKSH team realised that despite concerted efforts to involve women in development initiatives, the status of women within households and communities remains largely unchanged. Women continue to shoulder the primary burden of care work. Interventions such as training in agriculture and livestock rearing have added to their responsibilities. While these interventions contribute to increased family income, they do not necessarily improve the overall well-being of women or lead to significant shifts in gender dynamics. To address this, we have adopted a gender-transformative approach. Our teams have undergone training to understand patriarchy, gender norms, and masculinity, equipping them to apply gender-transformative strategies in our ongoing programs. Specifically, CARM-DAKSH is simultaneously working with its team members as well as the Community Resource Persons (CRPs). The CRPs provide a direct interface with the community while the programme team works with the CRPs.

The programme team organizes training sessions for CRPs and active SHG members, initiating conversations around gender and gender roles. The CRPs in turn facilitate regular discussions at the self-help group (SHG) or community level, focusing on gender roles in daily life. These meetings with the community offer a space to review and reflect as well as share collective experience and strategies. These help women to negotiate at the household and family level. These also help to sensitise the male participants to reflect and adopt Gender transformative behaviours at household and community level.