All India Gender Sensitization Workshops
The second phase of All India Gender Sensitization and Awareness Workshops organized by Tibetan Women's Association (TWA) successfully concluded on 25th December at Auroville, Pondicherry in Tamil Nadu.
The month long Gender Sensitization Workshop Series funded by Norwegian Church Aids and supported and outsourced by Planning Commission of Central Tibetan Administration kicked off earlier in the Tibetan Youth Hostel, Bangalore on 4th December, followed by Chennai, Mundgod, Hunsur, Bylakuppe and Pondicherry. The first phase GSW tour that concluded in the last week of November covered several Tibetan settlements in North India including Dharamshala, Dekyiling and Clementown.The last phase of GSW tour, which is sheduled to culminate before march 2008 will be conducted in Delhi, Chandigarh and Dharamshala.
The resource persons conducting the Workshops were Dr. B. Tsering Yeshi, President, Tibetan Women's Association, Mrs. Tamding Dolma, Joint Secretary, TWA, Ms. Tenzin Palkyi, Researcher and Editor, TWA, Mr. Phuntsok Chomphel, Programme Manager, CHOICE-HIV/AIDS Initiatives, Mr. Tenzin Jigme, Information Officer, ICT India and Mr. Lobsang Yeshi, Former Vice President, TYC and an Independent Researcher.
Dr. B. Tsering Yeshi, earlier speaking on the aims and objectives of the Gender Sensitization Workshops, elaborated 'though the Tibetan community experience far greater degree of gender equality with the Tibetan culture by essence being non-discriminatory, there still is a major avenue for Gender education to undo the existing gender imbalances in the Tibetan community. His Holiness the Dalai Lama spearheaded a major gender equality and empowerment drive by providing equal opportunity of schooling, vocational training, nunnery and employment etc for the girls. Major revolutionary steps were also taken to promote Tibetan women such as reservation of seats for women in the Tibetan Parliament in exile. Similarly, women physicians for His Holiness were appointed and Geshe degree for the learned Nuns too introduced. However, despite these great strides, Gender Sensitization is one area lacking major focus in our community. It was sadly found that very few workshops on gender sensitization were held so far in exile community. The workshop therefore, aims to empower, encourage and sensitize the women and men of Tibetan community and more importantly enable women to participate and assume leadership positions in community activities and development.'
Mrs Tamding Dolma further added, 'The CTA’s Department of Finance held it’s first-ever Gender Sensitization Workshop on January 2005. This was followed by the establishment of a Gender Desk under Planning Commission in November 2006. A Training of the Trainers (TOT) and a workshop on the gender issue were later organised in Dharamshala and Kollegal respectively by the Gender Desk. This October, another TOT was conducted under the guidance of Dr. Kunchok Tsundue, Chief Planning Commissioner and Ms Tseyang la of Gender Desk, in Lower Dharamshala.'
'Until recently, 'gender issues' have been viewed as an alien concept and not applicable in the Tibetan community. Many believe that, unlike many other cultures, there is no discrimination against women in government, law and in religion. Therefore, gender development programs are seen as Western parodies. The existence of gender gaps and imbalances was clearly found at an NCA program evaluation, where many of the projects benefits had not reached women.' clarifies Ms Tenzin Palkyi, the main coordinator of the ongoing GSW.
Brief reports on each workshop:
The participants of the workshops were mostly college students, school students, elementary and nursery school teachers, camp leaders, regional youth and women leaders and the general public. And the topics range from Sex and Gender, Gender stereotyping, Socialisation, Agents enforcing Socialization, Sexual Harassment, Gender based Violence, Gender Disaggregated Data (GDD), Social Problems and HIV/AIDS etc.
Bangalore
As usual, we first set rules for the workshop and started with the session on Sex and Gender. After clearly defining sex and gender, we quickly moved on to Gender Stereotype and Socialization. The workshop was mainly delivered in English. We also spent considerable amount of time on sexual harassment. The way we define sexual harassment was very new to the students. We drew a sexual harassment tree with causes, forms and consequences of sexual harassment. We later discussed means to overcome harassment and boys discussed ways on how not to contribute to the sexual harassment that’s already happening in public places. Besides other topics, another issue we discussed in depth was the impacts of stereotyping. We brainstormed on the impacts of stereotyping and we asked each person to clearly explain his/her points. We then discussed if stereotyping helps or hinders us, our society and the Tibetan movement at large. It was unanimously voted on that stereotyping restricts individual freedom and limits each person’s full potential growth, disempower both men and women, sets different expectations and create unfair sex role division etc. We also started something new this time with the Bangalore students. We took our first baby steps towards forming an online Gender Activists Network. All the participants from Bangalore signed up to be on that network. They gave us their phone number and email id. We promised to share gender related issues and new, our experiences and discuss ways to promote gender equality in our community.
Chennai
We had lots of very constructive debate on various subjects concerning gender. On the first day, when we were talking about whether women are naturally better care-givers to women, many boys had the misconception that women are naturally more interested in taking care of babies. Girls in the group were very articulate and expressive and they challenged men’s views of them and it’s quite safe to assume that many students were transformed within those two days. The workshop in Madras was the most interactive workshop for the trainers and many participants also commented on the activeness of this workshop. We collected written feedback at the end of the workshop and the response was overwhelming. Many boys pledged to eradicate gender discrimination in their personal lives and many girls vowed to never accept defeat easily. One boy compared the fight against gender stereotype as being thrown in the middle of the sea and told to swim towards land. Although, not feeding into gender stereotypical roles and diminishing it in our community is as tough as swimming across the sea, he and many others promised to try their best to bring awareness on gender issues and eliminate gender discrimination in our community.
Mundgod
While discussing socialization process and the agents enforcing and reinforcing stereotype, we stressed heavily on the roles that parents and teachers play in forming children’s personality and their belief system. We discussed the negative impacts that stereotyping has on each individual’s growth and how it limits individual freedom. The women participants were much more receptive to the idea of gender equality. The trainers tried to emphasis on the negative impacts of gender stereotyping on men as we didn’t want the gender workshop to end up being a workshop on feminism. The participants took special and serious interest on the deliberation/ presentation on HIV/AIDS by Mr Phuntsok Chomphel and great interactive session ensued with many demonstrating personal committment towards the prevention of the disease and in adopting more humane approach and outlook towards the ailing brethrens
Hunsur
Since, the workshop is very participatory based, and games and role-plays oriented, the participants said that those things helped clear the concepts. Luckily, there were few college students amongst the participants and they helped move the workshop forward. We gave a lot of priority on pointing out each individual’s role in the process of socialization and follow-up discussions on whether or not they think we should bring any changes in our daily activities and our individual attitudes. On the second day, all the participants actively participated in the workshop and they were much more receptive towards the trainers than the day before. The session on Domestic Violence (its causes, forms and consequences) was taken very seriously by the workshop attendees and we had a lively discussion on this issue. The workshop received very positive feedback and the participants stressed the importance of giving this workshop to younger generations.
Bylakuppe
Representatives of Tibetan media like Voice of Tibet, Bangchen, Dusbab and Chitsog video news attended the workshop both days. Their continuous presence contributed towards a healthy workshop environment and also encouraged other participants to open up and actively participate in the workshop. The high school girls from S.O.S. TCV were very active and bright in their conversations. Out of the 60 participants in Bylakuppe, more than half were high school girls. All participants were quick in grasping all the concepts that we discussed during the two days. While discussing socialization, all the participants equally voiced their concerns over how they think it is of the utmost importance to gender sensitize the social agents like teachers and matrons. When we presented the Gender Disaggregated Data on the second day, all the participants were shocked and disenchanted to see the gross disproportionate gender representation in all major social fields and then we had a lengthy and a very constructive discussion on how and why are women lagging behind and in what way can we individually contribute to lessening the gap.
Pondicherry
The fifth day of the TWA leadership training at Pondicherry was devoted to the Gender sensitization workshop where over 36 participants from Delhi, Bangalore, Mysore, Pune, Baroda, Sarah Institute, Chennai and Pondicherry participated. Although the workshop had to be abridged into a day format, the response and the understanding of the concepts were tremendous and inspiring. The discovery of the fact how each participants had been contributing in reinforcing the gender strereotype was a soul-searching and conscience-pricking experience for all. Everyone vowed to set things right on individual level and to try became crusaders for change and development in our community.
The Feedbacks and the Responses:
The feedbacks and the responses from the participants were overwhelming and encouraging with almost everyone stressing on the need to organise the workshop more regularly. For many the workshop proved an 'Excellent Eye-Opener', 'Educative' and 'Thought-Provoking'. Participants like Tsering Dolkar (PRO, RTWA Bylakuppe) and Yangchen Dolkar (Prefect, SOS TCV, Bylakuppe) urged the organisers to make efforts in including the Sex and Gender, Domestic Violence, Sexual Harassment and HIV/AIDS issues in the school syllabus. It was also unanimous in their suggestion that the agents enforcing the Stereotype and Socialisation like parent, teachers, media and the community heads etc be also provided the workshop and sensitised for the development of an equitable society.All in all, the GSW succeeded in introducing the gender issue to the participants and in foreseeing great transformation and sensitization in many.
Acknowledgements:
TWA hereby wish to extend our heartfelt and sincere ‘Thank You’ to our funder Norwegian Church Aid and Planning Commission, CTA for making the workshops possible through the funds and the valuable guidance. We also acknowledge our gratitude to TSAM, Chennai, RTYC and Administrator, Bangalore Youth Hostel, RTWA Mundgod, Hunsur, Bylakuppe and Acha Kalsang of Tibetan Pavilon, Pondicherry for making the Workshop for all their support and helping hands in making the GSW successful. Special thanks also goes to our male trainers i.e. Mr Tenzin Jigme, Mr Phuntsok Chomphel and Mr Lobsang Yeshi for accepting our invitation in participating in the workshop and for providing their utmost support and efforts for the nobel cause of gender sensitization in our community. Indeed your participation had spurred major interest and recognition of the issue among the participants.