Gender: The Punjab government has partnered with nonprofit organisation, Breakthrough, and the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) South Asia to integrate a gender sensitisation curriculum for adolescents into the syllabus of all government schools in Punjab.
The state government’s Department of School Education will embed Breakthrough’s gender equality curriculum in schools during the upcoming academic year; the aim is to change gender-biased perceptions and provide tools to enact behavioural change among adolescents.
The curriculum consists of a series of interactive, safe, and open discussions held over two and a half years to empower adolescents to transform their gender attitudes, aspirations, and behaviours.
The school education department will work with Breakthrough to train teachers to integrate the curriculum in grades six to eight. J-PAL South Asia will conduct an independent process evaluation to generate insights for sustained, high-quality, government implementation.
A randomised evaluation of this programme conducted by JPAL South Asia in 314 schools in Haryana found evidence that encouraging these classroom discussions led to more progressive gender attitudes and behaviours among both boys and girls.
Read this article on why we need to engage with young men to empower women.
