Men Against Violence & Abuse (MAVA)

Their main activities are:

• Gender Sensitisation Programs: MAVA conducts gender sensitisation and capacity-building workshop sessions in colleges/universities, and for government and voluntary organisations. MAVA also conducts residential programs for student-leaders to advocate against gender discrimination and sexual harassment of girls in public places amongst students in Mumbai.
• Project ‘Yuva Tarang’: As part of the project,  2-day Workshops on Gender-Sensitization are organized and a Residential Camp of 4-days are held for male students. These camps are arranged to develop an in depth perspective on gender among the potential student leaders with whom they would have long-term interventions.
• Annual Magazine Project: MAVA’s annual magazine in Marathi, ‘PurushSpandana’ (meaning men’s expressions), contains short stories, interviews, articles, etc. on sentiments of men. This magazine attempts to provide a platform exclusively for men of varied age-groups and backgrounds, to spontaneously express their innermost thoughts and various gender-related contemporary issues. The 2015 issue received the ‘Best Magazine’ Prize from a literary body.
• Umang Project: MAVA’s pilot project called ‘Umang’ works with adolescent boys between 13-17 years of age, on issues related to gender bias and sexuality. Supported by the US Consulate-Mumbai, weekly gender sensitization sessions are held. A 3-day summer camp was held at YMCA Campsite, Lonavala for boys from 3 disadvantaged communities of Mumbai.
• Special Awareness Campaigns: On the occasion of Global Protest Fortnight on Violence Against Women, MAVA ran a 16-day mass campaign advocating against gender-discrimination and sexual harassment of girls/women among the youth. 30 shows of a street-play on the theme Redefining Masculinity titled ‘Mardangi’ in Hindi was performed for hospitals, community centers, railway stations, Kalaghoda festival and FICCI Film Festival.