Mardon ki baat: re-imagining the household
Engaging fathers, husbands and brothers as caregivers — challenging the idea that nutrition, schoolwork and healthcare are women's work alone.
- Raipur
- Bilaspur
- Kabirdham
Six live campaigns. Twenty-three districts. Hundreds of villages where the alliance, communities and government walk the same slow loop — listen, frame, design, measure — until a one-time action becomes a daily habit.
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Engaging fathers, husbands and brothers as caregivers — challenging the idea that nutrition, schoolwork and healthcare are women's work alone.
A simple daily question reshaping classroom conversations across Jashpur and beyond — peer-led, teacher-supported, parent-engaged.
Nutrition for the full life cycle — pregnancy to old age — through Poshan Maah, anganwadi circles and PVTG-hamlet kitchen counselling.
A multi-year SBC effort, community-owned and government-backed — Balod becomes India's first verified child-marriage-free district. Now scaling.
Peer-led adolescent health circles in schools — menstrual health, anaemia, mental wellbeing, consent — with parent and teacher allies.
Participatory action labs in PVTG hamlets — community designs, community runs, alliance documents. Now in 5 districts.
Each campaign moves through the same four phases — Listen · Frame · Co-create · Measure. Open any campaign below to walk its journey.
Volunteer pairs sat at chai-stalls, mandi yards and barbershops — mapping how men talk about home, work and care.
The alliance picked one specific, observable habit — fathers attending monthly anganwadi check-ups with their child.
Anganwadis ran "Pita Diwas" weigh-in mornings; IEC posters used men's faces and phrases — "aaj ka growth check, aaj ka pyaar."
Across the pilot districts, recorded male caregiver attendance lifted seven-fold over four quarters.
The model is being replicated district by district — with adapted local idioms, panchayat champions and quarterly review boards.
Observation: parents asked about marks but not learning. The team mapped the moment that question drops out of homes.
Designed around a single sentence — "Aaj kya seekha?" — printed on slates, postcards and panchayat boards.
Schools ran "learning circles" — students reported one thing learned; teachers shared a parent script weekly.
Sample-survey: 71% of parents in pilot districts now ask the question at least 4× a week — up from a 9% baseline.
Currently across Jashpur, Raipur and Bastar — with state-education-department onboarding underway for the next 180 schools.
Field circles found families understood pills but not plates. Iron, protein and timing were missing from daily talk.
The alliance reframed nutrition as "teen rang ki thali" — green, yellow, red on every plate, twice a day.
Anganwadis, panchayats, FM radio and schools ran the same plate-imagery — designed by the alliance, free to remix.
In Balod and Kabirdham, surveyed adolescent-girl anaemia fell from 64% → 46% over four cycles of weekly counselling.
Active across Balod, Bastar, Surguja and Kabirdham — with weekly "thali tasveer" check-ins on family WhatsApp groups.
Door-step conversations across 200 villages mapped the social pressure points — debt, dowry, "log kya kahenge".
Every class-10 girl signs an "18-tak-padhungi" pledge — countersigned by the sarpanch and the headmaster.
Mothers, daughters, Anganwadi workers and elders meet weekly — to track every adolescent girl, by name.
An independent audit verified that ten gram panchayats in Balod recorded zero under-18 marriages over the last 12 months.
All 447 panchayats verified. The alliance is now adapting the model for Bilaspur and Jashpur — with a 24-month roadmap.
Mapped which questions students avoid in class, at home and at the anganwadi — the silence map drove the curriculum.
Designed three-layer triads — same age peer leaders, two teacher-allies per school, monthly parent debrief.
Periods, mental health, anaemia, consent — addressed in age-appropriate, locally-translated curriculum kits.
Mid-line survey: 78% of students report "I can ask my teacher one health question" — up from 22% baseline.
Active across Raipur, Bilaspur, Surguja and Bastar — with PVTG-tribal-school adaptation underway for Hill Korwa & Birhor schools.
Three-day immersions in PVTG hamlets — the alliance brought no agenda, only listening tools and a notebook.
Each lab has a community-elected coordinator; alliance only documents and supplies craft tools when asked.
Some chose anaemia, some chose drinking-water hygiene, some chose girls'-school-attendance — all picked by the gram sabha.
Reverse-survey design — communities rated alliance involvement; 88% rated the lab as "ours, with their support".
Active in Balod, Jashpur, Kabirdham, Surguja and Bastar — with a gram-sabha-only governance template open for replication.
Each campaign is open to volunteers, NGO partners, researchers and CSR allies. Pick one that resonates — and join the next monthly circle.