When I used to run a features agency in Bombay, India, doing developmental journalism, we released a feature on Domestic Violence. The writer was supposed to list problems, solutions and name people who could act on the suggestions, but came up against an impasse: battered women denied the problem, saying it was a personal matter, and not one they couldn't deal with. We were stumped for a while.
On a whim, I ran a small ad in the Indian Express, with a post box number, seeking responses from men who believed that women were not for battery. In the following 3 months, we received a total of nearly 800 letters from all over the state of Maharashtra. They seemed to cut across all levels of society � the youngest was 18, the oldest over 80; there were villagers who could not write English and had someone write it for them, and there were CEOs who dictated their letters to their secretaries. I was stumped a second time, and the females on our team were sceptical. They thought that many of these might be wife-batterers themselves exonerating themselves through a public act of piety. At any rate, I had no idea what to do with so many men who claimed to be against domestic violence. As a way to weed out possible 'pretenders', I sent out a questionnaire to explore their reasons for wanting to work against domestic violence, their experience with it, and so on. I expected that most would probably not take the trouble to reply. I was wrong. We had nearly 80% returns on the questionnaires. This began to get followed up with phone calls from men asking where we planned to take all this. I consulted with the HRD departments of the Taj Hotels Group and Unilever in Bombay, to see if they had any tips on what to do with several hundred strangers who did not know each other but claimed to feel passionately against violence towards women. No help there. Finally, nearly 8 months after I had released the ad, I rented a hall and invited the respondees. Only those in and around Bombay showed up, so we had a roomful of about 80 to 100 men. After announcing that I saw my role as facilitatory rather than as a leader, we allowed to express their hopes and expectations. We ended with an agreement to meet again, and set a date. To cut a long story short, I facilitated meetings between these men for close to two years. During this period, the number dwindled, partly from fatigue, partly from low interest. Eventually, there remained 8 stakeholders who had proven their real interest by just being there through the process. They formed a group called MAVA (Men Against Violence and Abuse), and sought help from a social work institute to improve their counseling skills, better understand the issues around domestic violence, and make plans. I pulled away once the group had registered itself and begun activities. MAVA is still active in Bombay, headed by Harish Sadani. I can post their contact here if people are interested. C Y Gopinath Creative Director Program for Appropriate Technology in Health Nairobi. ***End-violence is sponsored by UNIFEM and receives generous support from ICAP*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe end-violence OR type: unsubscribe end-violence Archives of previous End-violence messages can be found at: http://www.edc.org/GLG/end-violence/hypermail/
