Law graduate teaches gender equality in schools

She began interacting with women from various walks of life and even those subject to domestic violence and over the years, it culminated into My Story of a Wo(Man), a platform that deals with gender equality.

A recent law graduate, she also conducts workshops in schools about consent, toxic masculinity, gender disparities and more. Her second workshop was held yesterday and was met with tremendous success, says Subha. “Many institutions are not equipped to handle such issues so even the children who face such issues have nowhere to go. So our initiative is to talk about equality and women empowerment,” she says. “The students who’ve attended the sessions realise they’re struggling with the era of media and security is compromised so they are relieved that they can talk about these issues,” she adds.

Having a mental health professional full-time in educational institutions might not solve the situation because kids find it easier to open up to people closer to their age, she feels, so she urges college students to take up volunteering. “School kids look at confidants in people who they can associate with so peer motivation might be more effective,” says Subha. 

Apart from workshops, My Story of a Wo(Man) hosts live video sessions for people who have faced gender-specific trauma to be able to voice themselves to a large audience. “We try not to interview anyone but just invite them to talk about their story as they want. Since Facebook is live, we have a question-answer session too.” 

The team is also working on developing a website to create a mentoring system for girls. “Even though we haven’t launched it, it’s a project I’m really excited about working on,” she says. It’s baby steps like this which make Subha feel better about the world heading in a positive direction, even though it’s not quite fully there yet. She says, “Sometimes, I’m overwhelmed with all the violence that goes on around us, but when I’m in schools to conduct workshops, I see that kids are way more progressive than older generations. I see a lot more empathy but the internal battle in me will cease only when the extremely regressive communities also get uplifted.”

For this very reason, Subha says she’d like to hold a session for parents — “Kids are very sure of what they want but elders are the problem because they have the authority and power to dictate lifestyle choices and this pushes youngsters into a corner.” She’d like to assure parents that their kids are going to be all right if they pursue their interests — this will help love and security prevail, she feels.