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In the landscape of gender-based violence prevention, YP Foundation, a Delhi-based youth-led organisation, stands out for its unique and restorative approach in engaging men and boys in conversations about masculinity. Started as a voluntary group for youth-led social change dialogue and action in 2002 by Ishita Chaudry, an Ashoka and INK Fellow, YP Foundation was officially registered as a trust in 2007 with programmes on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR), digital storytelling, life skills, governance, and performing arts-based careers.

The foundation’s ‘Mardon Wali Baat’ programme, initiated in 2016, has been challenging traditional notions of masculinity by addressing how gender, sexuality, caste, and class intersect to create hyper-masculine ideals and behaviours in the Indian society.

The initiative aims to dismantle oppressive masculinity by helping men and boys reflect on their own experiences, cultural conditioning, and mental health, to respond and live differently.

The genesis of ‘Mardon Wali Baat’

Six years ago, the organisation launched a comprehensive sexuality education initiative called ‘Know your Body Know your Rights’ in Lucknow.      

Shatarupa Paul, an associate with the Mardon Wali Baat programme, says, the first engagement focused on a

small group of young men. The goal was to facilitate a deeper reflection on how masculinity affects them as individuals, beyond the binary view of men as either partners for change or perpetrators of violence.

“Our initial research made it clear that masculinity is not a monolithic concept. It’s deeply intertwined with religion, caste, and the pervasive influence of social media. We wanted to explore how these factors contributed to shaping masculine identities and how they led to harmful behaviors and attitudes,” notes Paul.

One of the programme’s significant contributions is its intersectional approach, which Paul emphasises is crucial for understanding the complexities of masculinity. The programme delves into how gender, sexuality, caste, class, and religion intersect to influence masculine identities. The findings of the research led to a series of programmes with men in rural and semi-urban areas, which highlighted several detailed observations.

“For instance, in one of our programmes, we saw how a man from the Thakur caste struggled with his gay identity, which his family did not understand. Even before he could come out to them, they started calling him ‘hijra’ (a term for transpeople) and agonised him for bringing shame to his community, which is considered a dominant in the caste status of India,” says Paul. 

“Another example involved a Rajput man who was shamed for losing a fight to someone from an oppressed caste, reflecting how caste hierarchies reinforce regressive stereotypes of masculinity,” she says.

These examples underscore the importance of addressing masculinity through an intersectional lens,” believes Paul. “We cannot look at masculinity in isolation from the social and cultural factors that shape it.”

Challenging deep-rooted beliefs

The programme’s workshops and sessions are designed to challenge the deep-rooted beliefs that participants hold about masculinity. 

Paul recounts an example from a session at a premier institution in Delhi, where male students expressed resentment towards women receiving reservations in engineering programmes. This sentiment often leads to feelings of animosity, which can manifest in harmful ways, such as recording and circulating videos of female students speaking out against patriarchal norms.

“We use these sessions to engage in open-ended discussions, asking questions like, ‘What would a masculine campus look like?’ This helps us understand the underlying beliefs these young men carry, and provides us with a starting point for our engagement,” Paul explains.

In another instance, the programme addressed the harmful impact of societal expectations of men. Paul mentions how male students are often discouraged from expressing emotions, with phrases like “Don’t cry like a girl”, commonly heard in response to boys showing vulnerability over say low marks. The programme uses such real-time  examples to educate participants on the importance of emotional expression and the stigma leading to suppression of feelings, and eventually mental agony.

As a gender-nonconforming person, Dheeraj Kumar, a 25-year-old social worker from Chhattisgarh, says, he understood masculinity through a whole new lens after training in Mardon Wali Baat’s fellowship in 2020. In the family and housing society Kumar comes from, men, he says, talk loudly, have the same interests, and are accepted only when demonstrating certain qualities such as control, shrewdness, and suppression of emotions.

“I attended the programme when I was trying to understand where I fit in, and along with some 100-odd people, I learnt ways in which women and queer people have their own masculine side. I rediscovered mine in art,” says Kumar, who is currently working on creating education moduled for children from economically- disadvantaged families.  

Campus Caravan: expanding the reach

Building on the success of its initial interventions, the Mardon Wali Baat programme recently launched the Campus Caravan initiative. It aims to create youth-friendly and inclusive campuses by engaging university students.      

The programme’s first cohort at SS Jain Subodh College and JK Lakshmipat University in Jaipur has already started exploring issues related to gender, consent, and sexuality through focus group discussions, storytelling, and theatre. 

They often begin sessions with a discussion on relationships, something Paul says piques the interest and curiosity of students easily. Within this framework, gender and masculinity are understood through universal needs such as love, respect, trust, and patience, which often cuts through differences in opinion to finding ways to meet every person’s basic needs, including one’s own, and in the process dismantling harmful gender norms. 

“One of the stories we use involves a couple discussing the concept of consent during a date. It’s a simple yet powerful way to help students understand how gender dynamics play out in everyday interactions. We also encourage students to develop their own methodologies to engage their peers, making the learning process more participatory and impactful,” says Paul.

Creating long term change 

Despite the progress made by the programme, the persistence of patriarchal norms and the resistance against efforts to create more inclusive spaces are significant hurdles. Paul acknowledges that the work is extensive and ongoing, but she remains optimistic about the potential for change.

“One of the most important aspects of our work is creating opportunities for boys and men to reflect on their own lives and experiences. This introspection is key to challenging the toxic norms they’ve internalised and helping them become agents of positive change,” Paul asserts.

Through their interventions in schools, colleges, and in collaboration with youth NGOs, YP Foundation’s Mardon Wali Baat programme has reached several hundreds of boys and men across the country.  Sustained donations from organisations like FOS Feminista and Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies have helped them carry out the work with different stakeholders in education and the development sectors.

The 30-member team has developed a policy guide for university students, aimed at promoting gender-inclusive practices and preventing gender-based violence on campuses. By involving men and boys in these critical conversations, the ‘Mardon Wali Baat’ programme is paving the way for a discourse and action, wherein masculinity is no longer synonymous with dominance and aggression, but instead understood in all its complexity and humanity.