Men Against Violence and Abuse (MAVA) is an Indian organisation that works to prevent

gender-based violence Gender-related violence or gender-based violence includes any kind of violence directed against people due to their gender or gender identification. Types of gender-related violence include: * Violence against women (sometimes referred to simply as ...

. Started in

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

, it is one of the first men's organisation in the country to work on preventing

violence against women Violence against women (VAW), also known as gender-based violence and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), are violent acts primarily or exclusively committed against women or girls, usually by men or boys. Such violence is often consi ...

History

Men Against Violence and Abuse (MAVA) started out with an advertisement posted by a journalist, C.Y. Gopinath, in several journals in

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

in 1991. The ad asked for men who wanted to oppose

and 205 men responded. The men met for a year or so, creating a core group and Harish Sadani became the leader. The group felt that both men and women needed to be "liberated from the shackles of

patriarchy Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of dominance and privilege are primarily held by men. It is used, both as a technical anthropological term for families or clans controlled by the father or eldest male or group of males a ...

." In March 1993, the group was formally organised in Mumbai. In 1996, MAVA began a journal, ''Purush Spandana'' (''Men's Expressions''), written in

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

which is published annually during the time of Diwali. In 2006, Sadani received a fellowship from the

Population Council The Population Council is an international, nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The Council conducts research in biomedicine, social science, and public health and helps build research capacities in developing countries. One-third of its res ...

to create a pilot project for MAVA called ''Yuva Maitri''. The program brought young men to a camp experience where they discussed and reflected on gender roles and relationships between genders. The ''Yuva Maitri'' program is still part of MAVA's programming and by 2014, had reached around 80,000 young men and created 500 youth mentors.

About

Men Against Violence and Abuse (MAVA) operates in the state of

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

. MAVA provides counselling, guidance for couples getting married, self-defence classes for women, a call in help-line, and other programs dealing with gender issues. MAVA and women's group,

Akshara Aksara (also ''akshara'', Devanagari अक्षर, IAST ''akṣara'') is a Sanskrit term translating to "imperishable, indestructible, fixed, immutable" (i.e. from अ, '' a-'' "not" and क्षर्, ''kṣar-'' "melt away, perish"). It h ...

, have posted information in

colleges about gender-based violence and gender issues. MAVA provides a place for men to open up to other men about issues in their lives. A documentary, directed by Inka Achté, and called '' Boys Who Like Girls'' (2018) profiles some of the work that MAVA has done.

References

External links

Official siteHumanizing Men
(2017-2018 video) {{Authority control Violence against women in India