Process with youth & boys
Alongside our long-standing work with women and girls, we engage boys and young men as part of our community-based approach to gender equality. We work at multiple levels — with individuals, families, institutions, and communities — to nurture more just and respectful relationships.
In Salumber, we have worked with tribal boys in a government hostel on issues related to the body, consent, and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). We are also implementing a three-year program on constitutional values with school-based youth groups. Each year, around 30–35 young people (boys and girls) join the program and complete a one-year learning journey focused on equality, justice, and discrimination, while youth from earlier cohorts continue to remain engaged in different roles.
At present, we are also undertaking a one-year research process to better understand boys’ perspectives and lived realities from their own point of view, and to explore participatory tools for working more meaningfully with them
In Bagru, since 2014, we have been working with mixed groups of girls and boys through Youth Wellbeing Resource Centres (YWRC), trainings, dialogues, and counselling. In the last two years, our approach has evolved from organisation-led work to youth-led action. Vishakha now primarily mentors, supports, and strengthens youth collectives, while young people take greater responsibility for planning and carrying forward the work.
Currently, three active youth collectives are functioning in Bagru — the Phule Group, a youth group in the Muslim basti, and a group in Raithal. These groups are advancing community initiatives rooted in constitutional values, rights, and social justice, with continued guidance and support from Vishakha.
Our work with boys is grounded in respect for their agency — we engage them as thinking, feeling individuals, not merely as “agents to prevent violence.” By fostering critical reflection, emotional well-being, and dialogue, we support young people to build more empathetic and gender-equal relationships
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