New Delhi(IANS) : Tired of being stereotyped as the aggressive lot and determined to join women in their fight against gender-based violence, men from across the globe will be coming together for a meet on masculinity here this week.
“Exploring Masculinities” will start Monday. The eight-day-long programme will see gender activists coming up with ways to be equal partners with women so as to put an end to the gender-based violence.
The event has been organised by the UNFPA, UNDP and UNIFEM in association with Aakar – an NGO.
“Just like women, men are almost always stereotyped. They are considered to be aggressive, when many may actually not be so. It’s a big baggage on them,” Jaya Velankar, who is supervising the programme, told IANS.
“Of course, we know that when it comes to violence against women, it’s the men who take centre-stage. Therefore it’s only logical to get them to be on the side of the women and wipe out all gender-based violence,” she said.
The programme will coincide with the 16 days of activism being observed during Nov 25-Dec 10 to wipe out violence against women. These 16 days connect the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women with the International Human Rights Day.
A range of events like a literary evening, music concert, exhibition, film festival, will unfold from Monday onwards as part of the seminar where the focus will be on men and masculinity.
Musicians from Bangladesh, Nepal, India and Pakistan will perform at the music concert.
There will also be seminars and round table discussions in which gender activists from South Asia, Britain, the US and South Africa will take part.
A joint UN regional programme is also being finalised for the period 2008-11 to support prevention of violence in India and help ensure that boys and men are part of the process.