For the first time in the history of the YFP, the Team was able to organize a 2-day, full-time, residential workshop on Gender. Partly influenced by the ‘Gender, Development and Social Transformation’ workshop organized by Visthar, Bengaluru, and attended by Sunil Gangavane in May 2012 and partly influenced by the transgender youth who engaged with the programme in 2011-2012, the gender treatment was comprehensive, transcending the traditional male-female dichotomous lens.

Sunil Gangavane, Coordinator, YFP, facilitated this workshop on December 14th- 16th, 2012. This residential workshop was intended to explore the concept and the institution of gender, to understand gender politics and to help fellows develop a gender-sensitive perspective. The workshop began with activities that clarified the concept of gender and socio-political-economic factors that influence the concept. Further, participants were explained how different social institutions perpetrated gender stereotyping and gender-based discrimination.

The idea of explaining the complexity of gender to 27 participants from different backgrounds was overwhelming. Gender literacy among the participants, to begin with, were different due to their diverse backgrounds. It helped to have an informal background discussion with different members to see where each individual was at in understanding gender. Moreover, gender issues are usually viewed through the male-female dichotomous lens with a focus on the exploitation of women. A great idea to deal with this challenge was to include YFP Alumnus of 2011-2012, Ashish, who brought in the transgender perspective. Also, Humsafar Trust’s documentary ‘68 Pages’ was screened to introduce the different components of gender. The different institutions that perpetrate gender stereotypes were difficult to communicate.

The Team is aware that such an in-depth workshop cannot be the end of the programme’s engagement with gender. The Team is eager to see how this idea has been internalized by groups and how they bring gender to bear upon their research work.