This NGO is using songs to educate young girls about gender issues

When Reshma Arya entered the classroom, thirty young girls eagerly gathered around her in a circle. At first glance, it seemed like an ordinary lesson was about to begin. However, what happened there was far from a typical class.

Arya started singing a song in Hindi explaining the whole process of the menstrual cycle as an animated video played behind her showcasing the process.

“Ek rani thi Andanu rui ke ghar me rehti thi" (rani is an ovum who stays in the ovary) “Ek roz door tak jaungi ye sabse Kehti thi"(It will go far away, it says daily).

With a song, Arya was able to impart lessons about menstruation without any awkwardness.

Arya is the co-founder and Program Director at Manzil Mystics. It is an NGO based in Delhi, started by a group of musicians in 2017 which is working towards creating social inclusion and learning through music. They also have their own 11-member band.

Through various programs run by the NGO, WeBhor (We Rise Together), which started in 2018, aims to create awareness and educate adolescent girls from marginalised and low-income communities about menstruation, sexual health, rights, and other taboo topics.

“We use metaphors like rani which refers to the egg or mahal which is the uterus. This is done because periods are still taboo and many girls believe it is not a good thing to talk about it. So we use metaphors to make it easy to understand and comfortable for the girls,” Arya tells HerStory.

Giving back to society

Anurag Hoon, Co-founder of Manzil Mystics and Arya met each other at Manzil, a youth empowerment and learning centre in Khan Market which taught music, theater among other mainstream subjects.

Arya inherited her mother's love for singing, while Hoon's passion for music had been evident since childhood. This common thread led them to join a few other people in the organisation to start Manzil Mystics Band in 2009.

Two years later in 2011, Hoon got a US scholarship and went abroad to study Marketing. A year later Arya, who used to work as a nurse in India, too received the scholarship and went on to further study nursing.

However, their love for music soon brought them back to India.

After returning Hoon tried his hand at a corporate job but he soon left and joined the NGO Manzil. He worked with the organisation in different capacities for five years.

In 2016 he became the CEO of the Manzil Mystics.

During this time, he was also completing his Master’s degree in Social Work. While working on his thesis about using music as a learning tool, he realised that life skills could be imparted through it.

This led him to start Manzil Mystics with Arya and two other friends.

Arya shares that the inspiration to start the WeBhor programme is deeply rooted in her personal life.

She recalls that when she was a child her body started growing faster than other girls of her age.

“Curiously I would ask questions about my early periods and growing breast size and all I would get from my mother was — ’zyada sawal nhi puchne lag gayi ho’ (you have started asking a lot of questions),” she adds.

With all these unanswered questions, Arya decided to study nursing and help other women and girls.

While she was in Manzil Mystics, she attended a session on gender and realised that she was uncomfortable in asking a lot of questions and there was a gap in understanding the concepts as well. This made her realise the need of using tools that could make young girls feel comfortable while talking about their bodies, menstrual cycle and other such topics.

This learning and her passion for music soon led her to start WeBhor in 2018.

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Tunes for thought

Arya explains that the programme follows four modules which includes body anatomy, gender, well-being and mental health, and financial literacy, etc. It covers songs on important issues like body image, menstrual cycle, breaking stereotypes etc under the different modules.

Usually, the programme runs for six months wherein the first four months different songs on the aforementioned topics are practiced. In the last two months, the students are prompted to write their own songs.

“We teach girls how to sing as well as compose songs while keeping the focus on above gender specific issues,” she adds.

The NGO runs this program with girls above 12 years of age.

Hoon, too believes in the need of such a programme.

“To challenge stereotypes, we must present tabooed topics in a way that prevents them from becoming even more stigmatised. Our goal is to spread awareness and normalise these subjects in everyday conversations,” he adds.

She also adds that before the programme they conduct an assessment to understand the knowledge of the students. Before the end of the programme they also conduct a post assessment to record the impact of their programme.

Arya notes that it is crucial to work with the boys as well when it comes to gender issues. As such now the organisation plans to work with the boys as well. Arya along with her team is formulating a curriculum for the same.

Arya shares that they also run an all-women band by the name WeBhor which consists of nine women artists. They sing inspirational songs on women empowerment.

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The founders note that raising funds has been a challenge for the organisation.

“People don’t easily understand how music can be used as a learning tool which makes the process of raising funds even more difficult,” Arya explains.

She also emphasises that so far they worked with around 20,000 girls however breaking the stereotypical mindset of people has been the biggest challenge.

She explains that because of the orthodox mindset, a lot of important bodily topics are not addressed. As a result young girls start to feel that something is wrong with their body.

But having said that, Arya believes that when young girls come forward to learn about these concepts, it is rewarding for the organisation.

She mentions that currently, the organisation has four fellows who were students and now working with the NGO.

“Ladli, one of the students of the WeBhor programme is now a fellow who has to fight a lot of challenges to even come and work for the organisation but she does and that is an achievement for us,” Arya says.

“We are here to create safe, brave and inclusive spaces for young girls like Ladli through music,” she continues.