JANISHALA Janishala: A learning space for adolescent girls and women

1. JANISHALAJanishala: A learning space for adolescent girls and women Nirantar, A Centre for Gender and Education

2. Education for Empowerment Nirantar established the Sahjani Shiksha Kendra (SSK) programme in 2002, in Lalitpur district of U.P. 5 blocks across 160 villages Covering over 2500 Dalit and Adivasi women and girls

3. Strategies for education with SC/ST women and girls

4. Janishala Janishala learners are primarily dalit and tribal girls / women(13-25 years old) OS girls or drop outs Poverty and migration impacts education of girls no platform for young women to further their education Teachers were: From the community Secondary school completed Literacy programme workers

5. Janishala Curriculum • The 8-month curriculum - based on popular education and feminist pedagogical principles. • Acknowledges local knowledge and context • Interrogates social and political structures; combining concepts like diversity, hierarchy and difference • Promotes democratic values • Builds agency of both learners and teachers

6. The Curriculum The content is structured around five 'themes' 1. Jal, Jungle, Zameen – Land, Water, Forest 2. Our Body- Sharir 3 Market- Bazaar 4 Society- Samaj 5 Media

7. Integrated the Sciences and Social Sciences- detailed mapping of concepts and skills in school syllabi • Issues of caste, class, gender, ethnicity located within the themes – as experienced by the learners' in the everyday • technology as a means to make meaning- computer, photography and videography courses • After the eight-month curriculum, learners appeared for the class 5 or class 8 exam. THEMES

8. Language Pedagogy • Mixed pedagogy- word method and whole language approach • Skills of reading and writing in language class, with three broad groups. • Subject based sessions combined • Intergenerational groups fortnightly assessment and reformation

9. Makhan, 18, Dongra Makhan is a Sahariya (ST) from Madavra block of Lalitpur. She was married at twelve to a man she didn’t know, who turned out to be mentally challenged. She has since left her marital home. Like most of her family, she has never been to school. She met a Sahajani who comes to her village, where she heard about Janishala, and pleaded hard with her parents to be sent. From not being able to lift a pencil, Makhan’s literacy has improved by leaps and bounds. She will give her 5th or 8th class exam after Janishala

10. Bhuvan, 15 Bhuvan is a Dalit girl from bhiara village, She had already finished class 8 and done her exam, but the teacher refused to give her her marksheet. She stopped going to school, since it was far away, and in any case, she leart nothing there. She had come to Janishala the previous year, and left – only to return this year when she heard all the stories of the padhai that happens here. Inspite having had considerable years of formal schooling, Bhuvan still couldn’t recognise some alphabets and vowels, barely write a full sentence. She can now write essays! And wants hard to stay on at Janishala and study as long as she can – and dodge certain marriage.

11. Feminist Approach BODY As the site for creating the idea of the citizen- ( who carries the rights and who the obligations?) notions regarding the public and the private finding a voice-communication of self, of ideas and values MEDIA As site for • Socialization • Sexualization • Labour- both productive and reproductive • Marked by gender, caste, class, religion etc

12. The Body Theme Moving away from the idea of Life Skills • Seeks to discipline through normalizing appropriate behavior for future citizen subjects • Norms rarely stated, woven into assumptions, information provided • Fear based approach- adolescence as potentially disruptive and didactic • Absence of rights

13. CONTENT AREAS The theme covered the multiple and inter connected dimensions of the body including changes that take place (particularly during adolescence), the different systems of the body and the body as a socialized entity. The topics covered by the curriculum were as follow: • Understanding health :notions of health, systems of health delivery, access to health services, poverty, reproductive and sexual health, Social Institutions and Law etc, • Knowing the body : The different systems , problems, social and economic contexts , local cures and treatments • Locating the body: diversity, growing up, social markers on the body, gender, sexuality, discrimination and disability

14. Sharing my dreams

16. The ground for sexuality was prepared through an intersectionality framework. Issues of gender, social construction, caste etc. were being talked about prior to the issue of sexuality • The adolescent learners in Janishala responded first with shyness and hesitation, and then with enthusiastic engagement to issues of sexuality. For instance, in the activity girls were asked to imagine a day when they could do as their heart desired. One learner's flight of fancy took her on a motorcycle ride.

17. Some bodily rights, as defined by the girls at Janishala • Bahar jaane ka adhikar- The Right to go out • Pant pehenne ka adhikar – The Right to wear pants • Mele me jaane ka adhikar- The Right to go to fairs • Sabhi logon ke saath baat karne ka adhikar- The Right to speak to everyone • Make-up karne ka adhikar- The Right to wear wake-up • Padhne ka adhikar- The Right to study • Nal par nahane ka adhikar- The Right to be able to bathe in the open near the hand pump • Pyar karne ka adhikar- The Right to love • Sex karne ka adhikar- The Right to have sex • Gaadiya chalena ka adhikar- The Right to drive cars • Patrakar banne ka adhikar – The Right to become journalists • Sampatti mangne ka adhikar- The Right to ask for a share in property • Kisi bhi jaati se shaadi karne ka adhikar- The Right to marry someone from any caste • Bolne ka adhikar- The Right to speak • Tight kapde pehene ka adhikar- The Right to wear tight clothes • Sasural me dahej ka adhikar- The Right over dowry in the marital home • Man ki jindagi jeene ka adhikar- The Right to live life the way one’s heart desires • Kam ka adhikar- The Right to work • Raat me ghumne ka adhikar- The Right to go out at night • Khel kud karne ka adhikar- The Right to play/enjoy

18. Media OBJECTIVES • To expose learners to various forms of communication technology and the politics behind them, given its wide spread in urban and rural areas • Curriculum designed to develop reading, analytical skills as well as the confidence and ability to tell their own stories. • To interrogate the hierarchies of different kinds of knowledge -written and oral,‘male’ and female’, public and private, mainstream and alternative, • and knowledge of certain castes, classes and communities – who creates/maintains these hierarchies and why?

19. Pedagogy • Workshops - combine skills and perspective on different forms of media. • theatre workshops - having your own voice - speaking in front of the others, of people listening to you - team building, working with peer group, breaking down barriers between dalit and tribal

20. Newspapers, radio, TV and film are made a regular aspect of the learners’ day, so that over 8 months, learners pick up the habit of reading the news. • films, writing news, making films, taking photos etc • Linkages with other themes

21. I.Basic communication skills -Developing comfort, confidence, trust through theatre/yoga exercises - Different strategies and styles while speaking to different people – how do we know what is most effective in a certain context

22. Why and how do we need to communicate? Sign/body language, written, oral, through pictures, role play, songs, paintings? • Learning to script and tell stories effectively – through theatre

23. II The politics of media Learners develop familiarity with different forms of media, to build perspective on: • What is the content? • What is news? • Whose news is represented? • Who is producing the news? • Who is represented and how? • Discuss representation specifically in terms of gender, class, caste.

24. III. Producing your own media • Newsletters • Photo features • Video films • generating information – Bazar, Jal Jungle Zameen

25. Profile and Baseline - Meri Pragati - self assessment (15 days) - monthly worksheets for assessment Project work and letters Teacher’s own narratives - individual files Mid term assessment - after 8 month Daily planning meetings by teachers ASSESSMENT

26. Teacher’s Training • Training of teachers, through a multi pronged capacity building strategy • Initial training on perspective, pedagogy, content of curriculum building on sexuality • Special input on understanding and transacting the body curriculum • demonstration (first batch) by Nirantar and observation/feedback on sessions conducted by teachers esp: sexuality, caste, tribal identity, social institutions • Workshop method