Difference between Gender equality Model and SALT

[Vikrant Jadhav]

In 2019, we started the Gender Equality project in schools and slum areas in Kolhapur. We decided to work on the issue of gender equality after consultation with Gov, We received Gender Equality training from ECF.  Then we started working with children in school. We used to conduct Gender Equality modules in schools. We found it easy to work in schools with children, but working in slum areas seemed a bit difficult.

We came to know that in one of the slums where we were working,  a minor girl was married off at a young age. When our staff went to inquire how did the parents marry a minor girl, they hid this from us and said that we have not married her and asked us to leave. On the same day, they sent the girl to Gujarat, another state in India. When we got to know that the girl had been married and when we asked why they had hidden from us. They responded that it was their private matter, and we should not interfere.

Inspire of our efforts for gender equality, we were not achieving the change we wanted. Through modules in schools, the change was there, but not to the extent we wanted. Children were taking small actions, but in a society where gender inequalities are deeply entrenched in the system, we needed a more transformative approach.

 

About Avani

Avani was registered in 1994 by professor Arun chavan .The Primary objectives were to help poorest of the poor satara of the society foucusing specifically on the worst of society's children's issues. we set  out to provide the most vulnerble children with food, cloths, shelter, along with health and education.

Even though was registered in sangli, our first work with children started in 1996 just 45 kilometers away in the kolhapur District. That same year Anuradha Bhosale , a former child laborer herself joined Avani.