GRIT Processes is a sustained public education programme on gender violence that will involve multiple stakeholders and reach out to those for whom gender violence is a daily reality.

GRIT Processes will work with five main constituencies, continuing our campaign-related interaction with them.

Students, young people, educational institutions

Young people are increasingly vulnerable to violence – at home, at work, on campus and in public spaces. Street sexual harassment, for instance, is an increasingly common experience; boys and girls are often silent witnesses to domestic violence at home; and as these young people enter the workforce, workplace sexual harassment is often a reality. GRIT will organise regular workshops and training programmes in schools and colleges, to help young people understand and cope with gender violence. Initially, there will be three distinct types of workshops – gender sensitisation for all students, issue-specific workshops on request (for example, one on street sexual harassment); and workshops to build self-help skills (self defence classes, or legal literacy, for example).

Health care professionals

Nurses, for instance, are often the first point of contact for victims of gender violence. It is imperative for health care professionals to learn, recognise, acknowledge and address the impact of gender violence on the communities they work with. GRIT will therefore reinforce the linkages between gender violence and public health through regular training and capacity building sessions for health care professionals as well as trainee nurses and medical students.

Media

GRIT will focus on crafting and circulating inputs that will aid journalists writing about gender violence. This will include the recently developed guidelines for reporting on gender violence; a roster of “experts” on gender issues; and training resources on gender violence for media students and trainee journalists. GRIT will also involve scriptwriters and directors from Tamil Nadu’s film and television industry in conversations about the portrayal of gender violence in the visual media. Finally, we will work with the growing community of social media users, to create an active, genuinely participatory space for civil society.

Support service providers

For the organisations that provide support services such as shelters, helplines, counselling and legal aid for women in distress, gender violence is a daily professional reality. GRIT will bring these organisations together, providing a platform for networking and facilitating the sharing of experiences. GRIT will also organise, on a need-basis, communications workshops and other skills building activities to enhance the capacities of these organisations.

Government

GRIT will initiate dialogue between different government divisions that are concerned with gender violence and various civil society groups. In addition, GRIT will engage with the police and the judiciary through roundtable sessions and workshops, particularly at law colleges and police training academies.

GRIT will also bring representatives of these different constituencies together, as and when relevant and necessary. For instance, an interface between students and the police department can yield suggestions on addressing street sexual harassment.

We believe that each of these groups has the ability to make a direct difference to the lives of those who experience violence; through sustained dialogue and discussions, GRIT aims to enhance this ability of these key stakeholders.