Chennai: A man washing dishes, making dosa and cleaning the house while women read the morning newspaper, play cricket or lift weights. These are some of the images that gender clubs in corporate-run schools in Chennai are trying to normalise. And that’s not all.

While challenging gender stereotypes, a mission led by a team of four women at Greater Chennai Corporation’s (GCC) Gender and Policy Lab is simultaneously working to make the city a safer place for women, with public spaces and accessible transportation systems. and comfortable for them.

“We have positioned an agenda and raised an important issue about women’s safety. We have people to talk about it. Before, it was only with the police,” a laboratory consultant told ThePrint.

He said the team ensures that women’s safety is kept in mind in every project implemented in the city because the lab coordinates with Greater Chennai Police, Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC), Chennai Metro Rail Ltd (CMRL) and the Department of Social Welfare and Women Empowerment.

“This is a proactive intervention that we have tried and it has resulted in a change in mindset,” IAS officer V. Sivakrishnamurthy, deputy commissioner (works), GCC, told ThePrint.

The official said the corporation has been slowly able to include a gender perspective in the city’s infrastructure design through the lab, adding that it plans to incorporate the aspect of gender inclusion and sensitivity while budgeting for different schemes.

“Students are understanding what sex and gender are. Previously, students thought that any work women did, whether it was housework or taking care of children, was due to their biological characteristics. Now, this perspective has changed,” Dr NA Arivukkarasi, head of the social entrepreneurship department at the Madras School of Social Work (MSSW), who collaborated with the gender lab in implementing gender clubs, told ThePrint. gender in schools.

She added that the case studies revealed that the students were also sparking debates about gender roles in their respective families. According to their estimates, the gender clubs have so far witnessed the participation of 9,800 teenagers in GCC-run schools.

Gender clubs focus on games, activities and discussions among students to promote gender sensitivity, while a GCC-trained teacher supervises the activities. Club activities are held once a week for Class 8 students.

Of the 420 GCC-run schools in Chennai, the clubs are currently active in 162 corporate-run schools and will soon be a part of 49 more schools within the city limits, the aforementioned consultant said.

In addition to gender clubs, the lab has recently developed 2,000 board games for teenage students to promote gender sensitivity.

“The games were delivered last week to 211 GCC-run middle schools, high schools and senior secondary schools and will be rolled out soon,” another consultant at the lab told ThePrint.

However, gender clubs do not currently cover sexual orientation.

“The modules address transgender people, not the rest of the LGBTQIA community. We have been talking only to students of Class 8. Therefore, we have very little scope to introduce sexuality to children. But we are planning to improve the training of students and teachers,” Arivukkarasi said, adding that they are focusing on sensitizing teachers on the issue so that students feel comfortable talking to them.

“The gender laboratory is more of an experiment. “We are constantly trying to close the gap between public demand and government response,” the consultant cited first said, adding that the group is working on developing a gender manual, a model for making public spaces and city ​​infrastructure are safe and friendly for women.

The consultancy also said that the lab is now studying to identify 10 main bus routes used by women in the city to understand the problems they face, based on which changes in infrastructure will be made. The study is expected to be completed in a few months.

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‘If you see something wrong, speak up’

A man approaches a woman dressed in a sari at a public bus stop. She is visibly uncomfortable due to his disturbing gaze. As she grows increasingly tense, a trans woman approaches and stands next to her, followed by a man carrying a child, which immediately brings a sense of relief and strength to the woman’s face.

The nearly minute-long video, shown by the lab to the public for the first time in August, is a wake-up call for citizens of Chennai to intervene whenever a woman is harassed in front of them. After the success of the video launch at Thiru Vi Ka Park and Phoenix Mall in Chennai, the team is now considering an extensive campaign to take the message to the streets in November.

“Now we are finalizing the programs. “There will be cultural and artistic events, and debates will be held throughout the city,” said the consultant.

They added that the campaign was launched as a follow-up to the findings of their pilot study in the city to assess the reality on the ground and women’s perception of safety in public spaces and transportation.

To do this, the team sought the opinion of 2,400 women, 500 men and 100 transgender people through surveys through home visits and in public spaces. Of the participants, around 12 to 22 percent mentioned having faced forms of visual, verbal, physical harassment, harassment, solicitation or violence in public spaces. About 62 percent of women who experienced harassment said no one intervened.

In cases where there was intervention, about 45 percent of women said it was by the police and only 38 percent said it was by people they knew or did not know.

“The campaigns will focus on how bystanders can intervene without being attacked,” said the consultant, adding that the two published videos cover two of the ‘five D’s that are recommended to follow in bystander intervention.

The ‘five D’s’ of bystander intervention are direct (report the inappropriate behavior), distract (intervene and talk to the victim), delay (talk and help the survivor after the incident), delegate (ask for help from a third party) . and document.

The lab also conducted numerous studies analyzing 2,29,277 complaints received through the GCC helpline number (1913) between June 2021 and July 2022.

It also conducted a city safety audit program with Safetipin, a social impact organization working to build a safe urban system, as well as a study on the safety issues of pedestrian bridges and underground pedestrian subways, after which recommendations were given to different departments to improve the city’s infrastructure.

The consultant said most of the complainants on the helpline were men. But because civic issues affect women equally, the lab recommended that the CCG include more female respondents.

“We ensured that streetlights, toilets and other basic infrastructure were fixed. Access roads to transit places were also fixed in 46 places,” said the consultant. However, the team said they could not reveal the names of the places where measurements were taken.

“Once we provide the data and input to the concerned departments, it is their job to do so. We give them enough time for it and do our impact study later, before the annual budget,” said the consultant.

(Edited by Radifah Kabir)

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