A recent survey conducted by Martha Farrell Foundation, an organisation working towards building a gender-neutral society in India has revealed that over 58% population in tier II towns believes that men have complete right over their wives after marriage, and are rightful in dictating to them. 88% have voted that a woman’s greatest happiness lies in bringing up her family.
With majority of participants between 13-15 years, the survey aims to understand the attitudes among youth in tier 2 cities towards issues related to gender equations and violence against women and girls.
“Youth are the foundation of tomorrow’s India, and a large part of our work at Martha Farrell Foundation involves working with youth. We believe that a young person’s personal interaction and positive experiences in adolescence can easily turn into lifelong commitment to make sustained contributions to community causes. As active citizens, studies such as this help to shape further the work of youth champions from our programmes to nurture a gender just society,” said Nandita Bhatt, Director at Martha Farrell Foundation.
Further, the survey reveals that 43% participants believe that women invite sexual harassment by their dress and behaviour, 21% believed that it is okay for the husband to hit his wife to discipline her and 34% believed that women should not take travelling jobs.
While the above mentioned statistics are alarming, the survey also revealed that 85% participants believe that every woman should report issues of assault & seek support, and 81% have voted against dowry. “We are beginning to observe some change in the attitudes of youth, this is a positive trend and can be attributed to many factors such as the decades of work that has already been put in by civil society organisations like ours. However, we need to understand that any work that involves behaviour change has to be a sustained effort and must involve the active participation of youth,” Nandita added.
1225 participants in 10 Government schools and 5 Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) in Haryana participated in the survey, mostly from Sonepat and adjoining towns.
About Martha Farrell Foundation
Dr. Martha Farrell was a passionate civil society leader, renowned and respected across the world for her work on Gender Equality, Women’s Rights & amp; Adult Education. Dr. Martha Farrell was killed in a terrorist attack in Kabul (Afghanistan) in May 2015. She was leading a Gender Training workshop with the Aga Khan Foundation at the time. Established in September 2015, the Martha Farrell Foundation continues the same values that Dr. Farrell strove for. It focusses on gender mainstreaming and adult education. The Foundation supports practical interventions towards achieving a gender-just society. Some of these are:
Kadam Badhate Chalo: working across 27 locations in 7 states, it is a youth (both boys and girls) led programme to end violence against women and girls.
Making Workplaces Safe: Training & amp; development programmes facilitating safe workplaces for all women workers in both the formal and informal workplaces.
Scholarships & amp; Fellowships: The MFF-NAPSWI & amp; the Martha Farrell Memorial Fellowship are awarded to develop new knowledge and professional practices for promoting gender equality, women’s leadership and prevention of sexual harassment at the workplace.
Please visit www.marthafarrellfoundation.org to know more.