LIFE SKILLS EDUCATION TOOLKIT FOR ORPHANS AND VULNERABLE CHILDREN IN INDIA• 13
Activity: Status and Power; Partner: Salaam Baalak Trust, DelhiThe Story (for children 15 years and above)
Seema learned about HIV and condoms in
her Kishori Group. She is very confident with
her knowledge and has practiced how to say
“no” to sex without condoms. She tells her
new husband that they should wear a
condom because he has just come back
from work in the big city after three months
and she is not sure he has not had sex with
someone else. She has raised her status,
but her husband puts her down and calls
her names. They are back now to the conventional man in high status and woman in a low status
position. She realizes that confrontation is dangerous with a man like this. So she asks him why he
gets so upset and raises her status to being equal to him because she is asking questions. Now
she tells him that she married him because he had a job and was confident like her. She does not
lower her status to make him feel better. But she helps him be confident and accept her as well.Experience from the field
A lot of issues of gender were brought out which revealed that boys had stereotypes for girls, such as
staying at home after marriage and not working. The girls hotly disputed this strategy.
A story was adapted: The mother (who is a sex worker) told her daughter to leave school and come with her
to the village because her “aadmi” (boyfriend) vwas troubling her. The girl refused to go, and the mother
threatened to commit suicide if the girl did not accompany her. When the girl explained that she was doing
well in school, the mother told her the truth—the boyfriend had his eyes on the girl and she was afraid for
her. They both agreed to go to the village for a short period.
The girls at the night shelter enacted different roles quite vividly: the policeman swinging the stick, the
mothers taking blessings before going for soliciting, the older children bullying the younger ones. The
whole community came alive through their enactments. They said the people who have power in the
community were “those who have money and those who lead the community like gundas (rogues),
mandal (association representatives), gharwali (brothel keeper) and sect leaders.”(CCDT, Mumbai)Review- How can you change your status so that both are on the same status?
- Does our body language as well as how and what we say, play a role in such changes?
Linking Learning with Life
In pairs, discuss a problem in your life. Then do a role play, and show how conventional status and
power can change to benefit both. The facilitator can select a few situations from those suggested
by the children to present if there is not enough time to enact all of them.