In March, The Center for Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality, a department of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, completed a one-month workshop with the Central Reserve Police Force in the Srinagar Sector, Kashmir. The Amrita Gender Workshop Series consisted of two phases of training in which the team from Amrita trained and certified master trainers of the Indian Armed Forces.

The master trainers included Assistant Commandants and Deputy Commandants with CRPF and four Majors from the Indian Army. The Amrita team also designed and provided hand-holding support for the subsequent phase of training, in which the master trainers conducted the TtT (train the trainer) sessions for more than 500 inspectors and jawans with CRPF. The new trainers will educate more than 25,000 CRPF jawans over a six-month period.

Dr. Bhavani Rao R., Director, AMMACHI Labs, and her team from Amrita also organized a one-day workshop for the commandants of various battalions. In addition, the Amrita team participated in the International Women’s Day celebrations at one of the CRPF battalions in Srinagar and interacted with the wives of officers and jawans.

Charu Sinha IPS, IG Srinagar Sector, distributed the Master Trainer and Course completion certificates to the successful master trainers on March 12, 2021. Currently, the Amrita team is designing an app to monitor the third phase of training, as well as creating video-based content to support the scaling of the training. As part of the workshop series, a custom training module will be designed and offered to the spouses and family members of CRPF jawans in the coming months.

About Amrita Gender Conversation Workshop Series 

The Gender Conversation Workshop addresses the issue of gender equality, masculinity, and mental health at the individual, household, and community levels. The ultimate purpose is to promote the wellbeing of the CRPF servicemen and women and improve their overall morale. This is a unique program that involves awareness building and training to encourage healthy dialogue on gender and mental health among the CRPF personnel and their families. It also seeks to promote them as positive role models at the community level.

The workshops are split into two distinct sections:

1. Mental wellness and overall well-being 
   Includes several mental health sessions to strengthen resilience and help develop lasting mental strength. Amrita offers research-supported tools to assist in understanding how the mind works and how to manage it. Participants learn how thoughts, emotions, and behaviors interact and how our desires and expectations of others can make the difference between a life of happiness or of distress. The IAM Meditation Technique and personal reflection activities are also taught to help develop inner peace.
2. Gender Sensitization
   This section covers a range of topics such as masculinity reflections, improving family dynamics and health, and shared financial decision-making.

• Family Wellbeing: designed to bring together and discuss various aspects of family, including fostering engagement among members,  introspection to understand the role of being an ideal human being in building a functional family, gender at home and work, systematic self-reflection in resolving conflicts, and encouraging gender-inclusive decision-making within the family.
• Masculinity Reflections: aims to inspire the participants to discuss masculinity and talk about what it means to be a man in India, as well as mens’ responsibility to ensure social harmony. The activities slowly introduce topics to help discuss these issues and come up with solutions to help participants become happier in their family lives. Obviously, this would bring support to their family members, as well.
• Financial Literacy: offers a specific inclusive approach to financial decision-making to enhance its performance and support family well-being. Indeed, this workshop demonstrates that the participation of family members in money management is a constructive and helpful practice to spend wisely while contributing to the family’s overall harmony.