Hearing the unheard
Breaking the Gender Barrier: Not as tough as we assume A slightly edited version of this piece finds place in the Deccan Herald here . Thanks are due to the team at Deccan Herald. Thanks are also due to Richa for inputs on the first draft. Indebted to the colleagues for their support. This discussion is based on recent experiences at a peri-urban school (up to 8 th standard and approximately 300 students) in eastern Uttar Pradesh. Few months ago we had members from a sister unit come and enquire why the school had asked female students to practice sports at weird times. This, they added, would not go down well with the students’ families and could also lead to unpleasant situations. Teachers discussed the issue and then did what many a time works well in such situations – abstain from reacting. These members were not the only ones to offer such advice! One of the teachers had encouraged students to practice kabaddi. These students began to relish the sport at the