An Overview

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An Overview India's Population 1.07 billion
Sex Ratio of Population 930 women per 1000 men
Literacy rate 65.38 Males 75.96
Females 54.28 Maternal Mortality rate 540
deaths per 1,00,000 live births Total Fertility
Rate 2.9 births per woman If unwanted births
can be eliminated, TFR would drop to approx. 2.1
children 52 of married women take decisions
about their own health care 29 minor girls are
pushed into wedlock 52 of Indian women are
anaemic No. of people in India living with HIV
Over 4 million (2002)
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Men Against Violence and Abuse (MAVA) Addressing
the root cause of violence and abuse of women in
India Traditional, male-dominated attitudes A
registered charitable trust working in Mumbai
since 1993 India's only organization of men
working against violence and abuse of women MAVA
has 4 men as core members, besides having women
members Currently operated with min. fin.
support from individual donors,
well-wishers Needs financial help of
US dollars per annum Project Duration and
Implementation Phase Initially began with a
focus on domestic violence and abuse of women
Activities limited to counselling and guidance
to men and women on tackling marital conflicts
and creating mass awareness on the issue, using
varied media Initiated pilot project with school
college students sensitizing them Addressing
issues of sexuality education, sexual harassment
at the workplace, child sexual abuse, misuse of
sex-determination tests to abort female foetuses
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MAVA addressing gender-based violence
Reaching out to young men and women in the
age-group of 25-45 facing marital other
gender problems For the last 10 years, more
than 2000 needy men and women provided free
face-to-face and telephonic counseling and
guidance  At a preventive level, youths in
schools and colleges in age group of 14 - 21
addressed through sessions on gender-sensitization
  Pre-marital guidance workshops organized
for men women
Expertise Trained and experienced counselors
Professionally qualified social worker
Self-motivated and committed team of activists
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• Approach undertaken to achieve goals and
  objectives
• For counseling and guidance, it has been
  individual-based approach
• For reaching out to youths, it has been
  school-based and college-based
• For creating mass awareness, esp. to address
  male-dominated attitudes,
• invitations sent to groups of concerned men
  and women, activists and
• general members of the public

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Activities undertaken to achieve goals and
objectives Advocacy Through symposia
workshops on contemporary gender issues
Occasions like 8th March-International Women's
Day being used Addressing specific issues like
acid attack on young girls, jilted love
Networking with women's groups, promoting
participation of men Education On-going
gender-sensitisation programmes for different
target groups Usage of innovative media like
street-plays , wall-newspapers, posters,
radio-plays, talks, competitions for youth, group
sessions, poetry-reading sessions Pre-marital
guidance workshops for young boys and girls
Purush Spandana, an annual magazine since
1996 Service Provision Counseling and guidance
sessions on resolving marital conflict
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Outcomes, project achievements and monitoring
tools Service StatisticsNo. of men and women
received counseling and guidance approx. 2000
Of these, 55 were men. 20 referred by women's
groups and other bodies, 70 of the cases were of
marital conflict. Others of sexual harassment at
the workplace, child abuse, HIV/AIDS No. of
Symposia and panel discussions for lay public
25 Topics covered Domestic Violence,
Legislation on Domestic Violence, Today's Youth
and Sexuality, Men's Issues vis-à-vis Women's
movement Symposia attended by packed audience
of men women Gender Sensitisation Talks to
different groups Type of training material used
for target groupsSpecial communication module
for school students Wall-newspaper campaign for
4 college studentsEssay, poster and elocution
Competitions Street Plays on Domestic Violence
Purush Spandana, magazine brought out in
regional language, copies 1000
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Stakeholders involved in making the project
successful TrusteesAll the four trustees putting
in their time, skills, expertise finance
DonorsSome donors-individuals and corporate
consistently supporting by way of advertisement
support or sponsoring an eventCultural Artists
Cultural artists across the city have been
lending support TeachersProviding support
during sessions with school college
youth Women's groupsSupport in terms of training
inputs, referrals, collaborating on a specific
project MediaTalk shows, discussions on popular
TV. channels, coverage by newspapers.
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Obstacles and Strategies used to overcome
them Skepticism by women's groups initially ---
Built a constant rapport sharing the notable
developments at the organizationSystematic
reinforcement and perpetuation of traditional,
male-dominated attitudes by most of the
subsystems of society education, law,
judiciary, media --- Working at curative
preventive levels with varied target groups
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Opportunities that the project built on
Parents wanting their children Sexuality
Education and Pre-marital guidance Interest of
study groups on Masculinity and Violence For
eg. Tathapi group in Pune, Brain -storming
session by UNIFEM Contemporary events like acid
throwing on a 19- year old girl , cases of
jilted love, debate on misuse of law by women to
harass innocent men , rape of a minor in a local
train
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Lessons learned Processes involved in reaching
out to needy men women can be shared Focussed
efforts on working with men needed Studies on
masculinities and their constructs need to be
done systematically Studies on contributions of
men need to be documented and shared