“We Learn How to Become Good Men”: Working with Male Allies to Prevent Violence against Women and Girls in Urban Informal Settlements in Mumbai, India

Abstract

Engaging men has now become part of established global efforts to prevent violence against women and girls (VAWG), with most interventions focusing on making men’s behaviors and attitudes more gender equitable. While scholarship on male allies has demonstrated the nature of their transformations and motivations, less attention has been paid to their negotiations of masculinity, privilege, the intersection between subjecthood and social contexts, and how these inform their engagements with women activists’ anti-violence work in their communities. We explore questions of men’s engagement in this article, which is based on a pilot ethnographic study with male allies in a VAWG prevention program in the informal settlements of Dharavi in Mumbai, India. We found that while men are able to acquire “knowledge” and “awareness” through the intervention, it produces an individuating effect wherein the structural nature of VAWG is obscured due to an emphasis on men’s individual traits. This further informs participants’ understanding of masculinity, which is marked by ambivalence as men negotiate multiple hegemonic masculinities and socioeconomic anxieties. One reason for this is that interventions with men are unable to destabilize public–private boundaries in informal settlements, which continue to treat VAWG as “private matters.” We discuss the implications for local and global responses to engender accountability among male allies.

A theory of change for community interventions to prevent domestic violence against women and girls in Mumbai, India

“…We take a method-neutral approach, combining ethnographic interviews and observation, targeted qualitative interviews with staff, group members, and volunteers, and case studies of how the intervention unfolds in selected localities; these augmented with data from our intervention monitoring system that can be used to answer specific questions. Central issues for consideration include the contribution of secondary prevention to primary prevention, the role of collective action ( Gram et al ., 2019), the role of expanded reference groups in norm change, and the role of men in program effectiveness ( Chakraborty et al ., 2018).…”

Zero-Tolerance Policy Toward Gender-Based Abuse and Violence

“…This hegemonic normalization of masculinity and inequality is not only produced among men, but it demands consideration of how men's experiences are intertwined with those of women, where some forms of masculinity are devalued and emasculation evolves. Rape culture has become a prominent form of inequality that becomes unveiled during conditions of war and in natural society when it comes to rationalizing gender-based violence and gender inequality and aggression in a lethal and toxic form of masculinity (Chakraborty et al 2018). Rape culture represents a society or environment whose prevailing social attitudes have the effect of normalizing or trivializing sexual assault, abuse, and rationalization that glorifies rape as an act of power, dominance, strength, and an assertion of manhood in hegemonic power structures.…”

“…These activities ensure that students who are victims or at risk of violence have appropriate support and access to child-and adolescent-friendly services. An example of the outcomes used to evaluate individual and community interventions: (Barker et al 2011;Casey et al 2013;Chakraborty et al 2018;Fulu et al 2013;Peacock and Levack 2004;Lundgren and Amin 2015;Crooks et al 2019;CARE 2013;Mills et al 2015;Slegh and Richters 2012). A few of the most recognized campaigns and programs include:…”

Using Participatory Learning and Action in a Community-Based Intervention to Prevent Violence Against Women and Girls in Mumbai’s Informal Settlements

“…The program has established a network of community-based women volunteers monitoring the safety of women and children and has introduced technology to document cases of violence. Outreach includes group education and enablement with women, men, and adolescents and individual voluntarism (Chakraborty et al, 2017(Chakraborty et al, , 2020. Awareness and understanding of violence and knowledge of rights and resources are developed through group work and campaigns that enable community members to plan individual and collective strategies for primary and secondary prevention.…”