In South Asia one in every two women experiences violence in her life. By engaging with boys and men can we provide support to a safe, secure, enabling and violence free environment for girls, women, boys and men.
Despite a decade of mainstreaming gender into development work, gender inequalities still persists throughout South and Central Asia, and includes unequal access to education, food, health care, income and political representation. Laws, culture, social structures and family relationships all play a central part in defining gender roles and relationships.
Gender equality is a key element of the human rights system established by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948 which states that, “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”. Other important milestones are the adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 1979 and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in 1989. The outcome documents from the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo in 1994 sets out the global mandate for engaging with boys and men for gender equality. The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in 1995 as well as the outcomes from follow up meetings are also promising advances.
Girls and boys are socialised into differentiated gender roles that place them within unequal structures of power. The family is the unit most recognised for providing basic emotional, physical, spiritual and economic support to children, and the process of socialisation starts within the family. Parents and communities often reinforce societal prejudices and discrimination on the basis of gender. Girls and boys in South and Central Asia are expected to behave differently and therefore their process of socialisation is different. Parenting roles are often gender-stereotyped. Mothers are seen as the primary caregivers and fathers are valued for providing material resources for basic needs, as well as administering discipline and passing on skills to children.
Gender inequality is entangled with power relations, with issues of who defines cultural values and practices, within the wider framework of social relations such as racial, ethnicity, caste and social class inequalities. Time burden of child-rearing and other domestic tasks, low educational levels, the role of existing male-female wage gaps creates an ‘under investment’ in female education. Many laws and customs inhibit women’s participation in labour markets. Furthermore, girls and women’s involvement in unpaid work within households drastically limits their opportunities for education and income earning and their ability to take time off for government programmes, social exchanges. Often a women’s need for rest, recuperation or health care is ignored.
Traditional gender roles almost always include a male and female partnership. Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered young people don’t conform to these expectations. They are penalised by gender norms and in many parts of the world are marginalised, discriminated against and excluded.
Violence in South and Central Asia takes various forms, for example, domestic violence occurs at rates as high as 80% in Pakistan, 58% in Nepal, 47% in Bangladesh. Other prevenlant forms of violence are acid attacks usually resulting from dowry disputes, honour killings, suicide or self immolation, or verbal and emotional abuse.
Trafficking of women and girls for the purpose of sexual exploitation or for domestic labour is rampant throughout South and Central Asia. Children, both boys & girls, suffer neglect, abuse, exploitation and violence in homes, school and institutions. The UN Study on Violence against Children has changed the way we perceive violence as it brought forward convincing evidence that boys are also commonly victims of violence.
In many societies in South and Central Asia children marry young and often girls younger than boys. Child/forced marriage rates are as high as 65% in Bangladesh, 34% in Nepal, 57% in Afghanistan & 46% in India. Early marriage can often mean girls education is interrupted. Health risks associated with early pregnancy are high as girls are not physically mature enough to bear children.
Some progress has been made in South and Central Asia in terms of legislation against violence against women and children. Often such laws, however, directly contradict prevailing social values and norms. Despite increased legislation, issues of gender-based violence still need broader awareness and attention and more immediateresponses to ensure gender based violence is addressed as a health, development and a human rights priority. By engaging with boys we can help to change social structures that perpetuate this tradition of violence.