There are approximately 230 million men under the age of 18 in India, who are growing in a culture that has made violence and discrimination against women acceptable. This is a huge problem.

Equal Community Foundation (ECF), a non-profit organisation based in Pune, was founded in 2009 with the belief that if we do not engage men as a part of the solution, the problem will be far from resolved. ECF works with men to end violence and discrimination against women.

ECF’s mission is to ensure that every man in India has the opportunity to study and practice gender equitable behaviour through their community-based programme called Action for Equality. This programme primarily focuses on men in the age group of 14-17 years from low-income communities and aims to provide them with knowledge, skills, leadership and peer support.

Men are concurrently coached through a process of personal behaviour change towards women. AFE ensures men don’t simply study and debate equality, but that they experience it. The programme goes beyond attitude change and focuses on behaviour change.The objective of the programme is create leadership in the form of young men who would work with influential groups of parents, teachers and media to raise men differently within their families and communities.

ECF runs Action for Equality Programme across 20 low-income communities in Pune. Over 1400 young men have graduated from Action for Equality Programme till date. Based on the experience, ECF is currently working on plans to replicate this programme nationally over the next 5 years.

Your contribution will go towards supporting implementation of Action for Equality Programme in one community in Pune for 1 year. Which means over 100 men will get an opportunity to be a part of Action for Equality and as a result take action to bring about change in themselves and their communities