Pratiti in Bhopal - March Meetup

The Pratiti Bhopal cohort’s first monthly meetup took place via a full day workshop on Tuesday, 29th March at the ICM Bhopal premises.

Purvi sets the day's agenda

The day began with the participants sharing about the gendered experiences they are a part of on a daily basis but have only now begun to observe. Many powerful stories were shared ranging from how views and beliefs are evolving to how habits and notions are being uprooted. 


One such story was from Poonam, who works with Eka. She shared:

“As I now know what is gender and where it originates from, I have started pointing it out in my day to day life even in my office. Recently, there was a program hosted in CM house where women were asked to wear pink sarees. We were also asked to do the same. On asking why this particular attire, we were told that pink is girl’s color. I bluntly refused wearing the pink saree stating that it is gendered and I will not follow the same…” 

Following the sharing was an extremely interesting session on facilitation, in which participants, one each from every organization, were asked to self-nominate and facilitate a gender session based on their existing knowledge and what they had learned thus far. 

Discussing about the nitty gritties of facilitation

Manohar, Rahul, Ashish, Sunil, Tabassum, Poonam and Divya were the volunteers who nominated themselves on behalf of Bachpan, Sathiya, Pahal, Synergy Sansthan, Pioneer, Eka and the ActionAid Network Office respectively, with each given 15 minutes to design their own customized session based on a list of themes revolving around gender: 

- What is gender? 

- What is gender based violence? 

- What are stereotypes/dharnayein? 

- How can we support someone who has faced/is facing violence? 

- What are the benefits of gender equality for the community? 

Manohar introduces his session

Tabassum facilitates her session

Ashish organizing his session

Participants discuss in pairs as part of an activity under Ashish's session

Sunil introduces his facilitation session

The 7 volunteers smoothly navigated their way through facilitation, despite most having no prior experience, by keeping the audience involved and engaged in their own fascinating ways. The post-lunch session saw the participants finalize the ideas for their action projects and reflect on why they chose this idea and the resources they would need for the same.

Engrossed in discussions about action projects

The day concluded with a final session on the list of activities that will be planned by the participants for the month of April to get their action projects underway on-ground.
Stay tuned for their impact stories!

Happiness and smiles during the concluding energizer!

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