Jamshedpur Social Worker Educates Boys on Menstruation & Women's Respect Through Cricket

Jamshedpur: Bridging the gender gap among boys and girls, a young social worker of the Steel City, who is known for his work on menstrual hygiene in govt schools in rural areas of the Kolhan region, is now on a new mission to educate schoolboys about menstruation and respect for women and girls.

The move, he says, is to build a safer society. Through sporting activities, boys are educated about periods, as well as social taboos.In addition, he made the girls and boys in villages sit for conversations to talk about gender issues for better mindsets and mutual respect. “Our early feedback suggests that the initiative helped both genders understand each other’s physical and emotional changes and become partners for gender equity, not just on the playground but also at home and school,” said Tarun Kumar, the social worker who is taking up the mission.Tarun, who is also the director of Nischay Foundation, said it has been about six months since his NGO, which worked for promotion of menstrual hygiene in govt schools for about a decade, launched mixed gender cricket matches in the rural circle of East Singhbhum. Gradually, it kept on expanding to neighbouring districts.According to the rules framed for the mixed gender match, the 11-member team has six girls in the squad, and when the team goes to bat, the opening pair is a girl and a boy.

When the wickets fall, mixed gender players take to the ground alternately.“Similarly, the team which is fielding will have mixed gender bowlers. Sometimes, the umpires are also of mixed gender,” Tarun said. “We chose cricket because this sport is popular among boys and girls in the rural areas, and players are familiar with the way it is played,” he said.Initially, there was some inhibition among players of both genders while batting and fielding, as the boys were vocal and unfiltered in their language, and the girls were more organised and well behaved.

However, as the days passed, the boys became more respectful in their behaviour and supportive of the girls and even stopped mocking them for their mistakes, he said.After the play gets over, the teammates sat together and discussed issues touching their lives, and this was when menstrual hygiene, period stigma, social taboos, boys’ conventional thoughts about girls and their physical and emotional changes, as well as the girls’ position in patriarchal society and related topics, were discussed to debunk myths and open roads of communication to build a better and safer tomorrow, Tarun said.Summarising the “take home” from the initiative, Laxmi Mahato, a 16-year-old girl from Patamda, said the crime against women and girls would drastically come down in future, provided mixed gender initiatives in different spheres are taken up in society.Currently, a group of 150 youngsters, including 70 girls, are part of the mixed gender cricket initiative. The players are from the Patamda, Boram, Galudih, Ghatsila, and adjoining blocks of the district. The NGO provides cricket kits to the players.