It was a rainy morning and we still had to drive 35 km more.We were in Ranchi, the Capital city of Jharkhand, and our destination was a middle school, DUDRI school (Murhu) in Khunti district. As our car slowed down, indicating we were near our destination, everyone started to look for the school.

To our surprise, there was no structure that looked like a school, just a few pucca houses, surrounded by dense trees. Finally, the car stopped at one of these houses, which turned out to be the school. Unlike any urban schools, this DUDRI school at Murhu block was not in a very good condition, had only three classrooms to accommodate students from Classes KG to VIII and only three teachers, including the principal.

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The school had an unusual environment: There was no student in the courtyard and pin drop silence. Where have all the children gone? “They all are attending GEMS class,” informed Subodh Munda, principal and caretaker of the school. Our visit was organised by International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) to check affect of GEMS sessions in the schools.

The girls, wearing white kurti and boys wearing white shirts had adjusted themselves in one class to attend the GEMS session. “You can’t see this much crowd and enthusiasm among the students in any other class. If it is mathematics or science, most of the students give it a skip. But whenever there is GEMS session, students mark their maximum presence,” said Sanjay Kumar Sinha, a teacher, standing by the principal.

What is GEMS?

GEMS stands for Gender Equity Movement in Schools, it is a programme initiated by the International Centre for Research on Women (ICRW) along with the Committee of Resource Organisations for Literacy (CORO) and the Tata Institute for Social Sciences (TISS) to lessen the vast gender inequality and gender violence among the school students, mainly adolescent kids. The programme was initially started in Maharashtra across 45 schools touching 2,400 students from Class VI to VIII.

After its success in Maharashtra, the same programme was implemented in 40 school of Jharkhand’s Khunti and Ranchi district. Under this programme, Classes VI to VIII are integrated, various types of lectures and education activities are organised to inform the students about gender equity and prevention of gender-based violence. A total of 24 classrooms sessions were held in two years, they give various booklets and one diary known as GEMS diary containing games, quizzes and illustration about the gender equality.

“After the session there is a drastic change among the students,” informed Arti Kujur, Chairperson of Jharkhand State Commission for Protection of Child Rights. “Now at least they know what is violence, what kind of violence it is. They even report about the violence if it happens to them. This was not the case earlier,” she informed.

Violence in school

As per a study done by UNICEF violence is seen as a normal part of childhood and half the Indian children face sexual abuse. World over, 60 per cent children face punishment on a regular basis. Another study by ICRW-Plan Study (2014) estimates up to 84 per cent girls and boys have faced violence in school. There are many negative impacts on the children, sometimes in their immediate lives or in the future. The immediate results of violence are absenteeism or dropping out of school. In their adulthood boys are more likely to perpetrate violence, while girls accept violence by partners.

At the same time, the study also says their health, employment and mental well-being gets adversely affected. Violence reinforces harmful gender stereotypes, and children learn inequitable ideas from a very young age. The GEMS session deals with various issues with students. During the sessions, they highlight violence, gender equity, sexuality and life skills such as conflict resolution, communication and expression of emotions. In a bid to explain to the students more lucidly, GEMS uses activitybased curriculum, role-play sessions, open dialogue forum, interactive games and lessons from life experiences.

The kids are informed how preconceived notions, such as men do not cook, a household is headed by a man, man cannot look after children, boys are strong and girls are weak, girls usually do not play cricket and boys do not cry, are ruining social lives. At the same time, girls are also explained the different types of violence ~ physical violence, mental violence and most importantly sexual violence.

In the school

As we entered the classroom, the discussion on types of violence was going on. A Class VIII student shared that how his uncle created a ruckus after drinking. Then a girl informed how her father under the influence of liquor beat up the whole family. Another girl informed that boys in the market once tried to pass lewd comments. Then two students enacted domestic violence. Other students were shown how to react if a girl faced any sexual violence. “Initially, students were very reluctant to share their sufferings,” Nisha Tripathy, Project coordinator from Leads.

“For instance, girls were a little hesitant to share about menstrual cycles and eveteasing, but after attending a few sessions, they gained confidence and shared many stories. The same goes with the boys.” During our conversation with a group of students, it emerged that they have developed amazing confidence and were eager to share their suffering. These classes gave them a lot of gender-equitable attitude, increased their communication and interaction with peers, teachers and parents, increased their “bystander intervention” and confidence in voicing opinions and initiating changes in their own lives.

“Ever since I started attending these lectures, I have been helping my mother and sister in doing household work,” said a student of Class VI. Another girl student shared, “Earlier we used to think that only boys can play in the playground, not girls. But now I play hockey and football with them.” Even the data corroborates the claim.

A study done by ICRW shows that as compared to non-GEMS schools 11 per cent more boys in GEMS school now use positive ways to stop physical violence. More students now intervene to stop violence and also do not use violent means to do so. As per the reports, the use of violence to stop emotional violence decreased by 15 per cent among boys; and decreased by 21 per cent among girls in case of sexual violence. There is rejection of corporal punishment in GEMS school, the study says around 56 per cent students rejected the corporal punishment after attending the GEMS, and before GEMS it was only 31 per cent.

“The age of 12-14 is the best time for the students. Things learnt at this age always remain in the mind. Therefore, this is the best age of learning about gender and violence. So these attitudes can be carried throughout their lives,” said Nandita Bhatla, GEMS programme lead from ICRW.

Double benefit

Initially GEMS representatives train the teachers about the programme. Subsequently, they take classes of students. Therefore, the programme not only transformed the students, but also teachers. In many instances, teachers as well as many parents have witnessed a change in themselves. Teachers have improved communications with children.

Now they have stopped corporal punishment and reduced stereotypes around division of work in schools and home. Now schools allocate the students gender equitable tasks. “Earlier cleaning work was given to girl students and any outdoor work was allocated to boys. But now things are totally different. We don’t discriminate work on gender basis,” informed Sangita Gupta, a teacher. Another male teacher, Sanjay Kumar Sinha informed, “I used to beat my students to discipline them, but then I recognised there should be no space for violence.”

Another teacher informed that before GEMS, he was a little hesitant to talk about issues such as body changes and sex, because these things are considered taboo. “After the GEMS teacher training we discuss these issues with students very confidently,” he added. Sanjay Kumar Sinha shared that these classes had changed their personal lives too, “Now we have also started cooking and sharing household work with our wives,” he said. However, these exercises were not as easy as they appeared. The toughest part was to convince teachers and parents to let them organise the sessions in the schools.

The teachers feared that if they became open with the students, the latte would give no respect to them. When it came to talking about sexuality, many male teachers adamantly refused. Surprisingly, female teachers were ready to talk on this issue, especially on menstrual cycle, to the girls. Once the teachers were convinced, then parents became another obstacle.

Whenever the parents were informed about the gender gap and violence among kids, they simply warded it off saying, “There is no discrimination in our society.” “We had to run pillar to post, make them understand about the benefits about the programme,” said programme coordinator, Gurpreet Singh from ICRW. However, as they say, hardwork always pays off. Impressed by their work, Jharkhand State Council of Education Research and Training (SCERT) included a chapter about GEMS in its Class VI textbook.