Campaign

Thousands of Samanta Saathi or male champions for gender equality have completed a full year’s training (Gender ki Baat, Purushon ke Saath) with the Ek Saath campaign ( https://www.eksaathcampaign.net/) (@ek_saath) (https://www.facebook.com/groups/Eksaathcampaign) on issues of gender, masculinities and preventing violence and discrimination against women and girls (Man Ek Darpan). They have taken pledges for gender equality on International Women’s Day and are participating in activities with women’s organisations (Uttarakhand Ek Saath National Campaign video). They have brought about changes at the personal and family level such as taking responsibility for domestic and care-work at home, supporting their partner or sister in opportunities for employment and education, challenging restrictions on their mobility and choices, resisting early marriage of girls, speaking out against domestic violence and altering their own behaviours of traditional masculinity. They are also emerging as peer leaders in their community on these issues. Rakshabandh Campaign

The Ek Saath Campaign’s network of 10,000 trained Samanta Saathi is spread over 70 districts in the seven states of West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Jharkhand (Map of Ek Saath). Through the year Samanta Saathis organise hundreds of issue-based campaigns in their communities. The Ek Saath Campaign is being implemented in partnership with the OBR network (www.onebillionrising.org) and the Forum to Engage Men (FEM) network (www.femindia.net).

The impact of the long term work with men through Ek Saath became visible in the emergence of an alternative masculinities response during the Covid crisis. Samanta Saathis have shown more resilience and coping strategies during this time, in comparison to the mainstream responses of men and communities cracking under the strain leading to heightened violence against women and social crisis. Taking on leadership roles in their communities, they have formed a cadre of sensitised men and boys taking accountability for preventing gender based violence.

They are setting personal examples of caring and respectful behaviour at home, taking responsibility for domestic work and childcare, and functioning as a civil force raising issues of domestic violence and rights violations of women and children in homes around them. Samanta Saathis are working with their Mentors, partner organisations and government and non-government partners to bring better services to women and girls during this crisis and draw attention to their rights and needs. The Samanta Saathis have set an example that men do not need to respond in traditionally patriarchal, masculine ways (Ek Saath Uttarakhand Lockdown Response).

A large variety of communications resources have been developed for generating awareness and supporting Samanta Saathis in playing a positive role during the crisis, ranging from the Audio Drama series ‘Naye Daur ki Nayi Baatein’ to articles and infographics.

The Ek Saath Campaign’s large community of partner organisations and others came together during the pandemic to reflect on the Covid-related connections between violence against women and children, and men and masculinities in a series of webinars. The interactions helped to also develop local, ground-up community response protocols and alerts that are functioning as resilience mechanisms to tackle the crisis.

Building on the campaign’s work, Ek Saath Gender Hubs have been established in 27 districts in three states across the country for a rapid response to preventing violence against women and girls during the corona epidemic. Ek Saath Gender Hub Rapid Response Jul-Sep 2020

The Gender Hubs are mapping the emerging situation and convening government and non-government stakeholders for a rapid response to violence against women and girls taking place in public and private domains.

Each Gender Hub constituted in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand is coordinating at three-tiers with local authorities, service providers and women’s groups at community, district and state levels in taking action for women’s rights and advocating for a gendered lens in addressing the impacts of the epidemic (Gender Hub Poster and Banners).

The Ek Saath National Campaign engages men and boys as partners for gender justice in changing gender social norms that are discriminatory. Ek Saath in Hindi means ‘Together’ and here it denotes both partnership between men and women as well as that of men with other men for ending violence and discrimination against women and girls. The campaign is based on the principle of togetherness in changing social norms that deny opportunities to women, impose restrictions on them, violate their rights and are harmful to their well-being.

Background: The campaign emerged in 2016 as a collective of citizen’s groups coming together on a common platform based on the recognition that even as India may be striding ahead on the economic front, similar social progress has not taken place in removing gender based violence and discrimination.

The Ek Saath campaign is based on the belief that if we want to change the situation for women, it is time to shift the onus of change from those who are facing discrimination to those who create and uphold gender discriminatory social norms.

Vision: Gender equality is a vision for the whole of society and men must become equal champions of gender justice. Ek Saath envisions a world where men are celebrating women’s achievements and promoting equitable relationships.

Objective: The campaign promotes men and boys’ active partnership and participation to change gender discriminatory social norms in the family, community and different institutions. It focusses on the concrete actions they can take to bring about equality.

Thus at the household level, the focus is on men’s role as fathers, uncles and brothers as they break out of gender stereotypes by taking equal responsibility for household work, supporting the education of girls and women in the family, removing restrictions on their mobility, discouraging their early marriage, promoting marriage by choice, facilitating their economic independence and so on.

At the heart of the campaign is the Samanta Saathi. He is a male gender champion who is bringing about changes in his own life and promoting it among other men and boys around him too. He spearheads change at the level of family, community and institutions through his individual and collective efforts. He also inspires change among other men and boys in his milieu, and links with other likeminded groups of Samanta Saathi across the country. Networked together among themselves and with local organisations, Samanta Saathis form the basis of larger change in gender social norms across the country, creating a sustainable and replicating process.

Campaign Spread: The campaign is being implemented across urban and rural sites using a multiple hub approach. Each of the 7 states where the campaign currently runs is organised as an Ek Saath State Hub. Thus, more than 80 organisations across the country active in working on the ground on social justice and rights based issues are partners of the campaign (https://www.facebook.com/groups/Eksaathcampaign). In their association with the campaign the emphasis is on mobilising men and boys’ to reflect on masculinity and gender norms and support them in taking personal action for social change.

Capacity Building Training on Gender and Masculinities: To enhance men’s knowledge and understanding on the gender discriminatory nature of social norms and increase their capacity to actively challenge gender discriminatory social norms through their own practices, youth leaders (Samanta Saathis) in the Ek Saath Campaign take part in face-to-face training sessions on a monthly basis in small groups of 18-25, guided by a Mentor.

They have gradually formed networked Samanta Saathi community action groups for establishing gender equitable practices in their families, communities and institutions, addressing issues like early and child marriage, gender based violence and discrimination, sex selective practices and women’s leadership and decision making.

Guiding them are trained Mentors (Guidebook for Ek Saath Mentors) from the campaign’s 80-plus partner organisations linked with the respective men’s network in their states. These profeminist men’s networks are FEM (Forum to Engage Men) (https://www.femindia.net/) in Odisha, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and West Bengal, MASVAW (Men’s Action for Stopping Violence Against Women) (https://bit.ly/38f2yoT) in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, and MAE (Men’s Action for Equity) in Madhya Pradesh. The Samanta Saathis are also networked with other campaigns and alliances working for social justice issues in their states.