Exclusion to Inclusion: The Transformational Journey of Tech Centre Girls
By Faiza Mehar
We face exclusion in some form or the other in several walks of our life, At times, we are ignorant of it as we don’t even realize that it’s an exclusionary experience and at times, the experience of being excluded is so strong that its memories lingers throughout our life. Recently FAT got an opportunity to participate in a campaign by ComMutiny- the Youth Collective, Pravah and Poorest Areas Civil Society called बस! Stop...discrimination right now: a campaign on wheels that calls on young people to engage, inspire and act on issues of social exclusion. The campaign seeks to address social exclusion through dialogues and engagement in everyday spaces. Twenty-eight girls of FAT’s Tech Centre went to a community called Pahel in East Delhi. Pahel works with the transgender community.
The day started with an effort to understand discrimination and exclusion and how they are correlated. The facilitator of the campaign took a case study and did a small role play to help the girls experience exclusion. It was a struggle for the adolescent girls, coming from disadvantaged backgrounds to articulate examples of exclusion from their everyday life. But, gradually, as the discussions got more intense, the girls were able to relate the incidents to their own life. As part of the design of the campaign, we headed to the Pahel community. Initially, when the girls saw the transgender women, they were really afraid to even stand adjacent to a never-before seen community. Their past experiences with them flashed in front of their eyes. And they were not even ready to initiate any conversation.
The Tech Center girls were asked to have a small group conversation with the trans women. When they started sharing their everyday struggles--what one feels when one is denied basic human rights, how they experienced public insult--a relationship of empathy, rather than sympathy, started developing among the girls and the trans women. The girls were able to resonate with every story that was shared. The conversations took an interesting turn when the girls spoke to the trans women about their own personal lives. Within an hour, a special bond was developed between two seemingly different communities. I could hear laughter echoing in the field where the discussion was taking place. Warm hugs were exchanged and the girls sang and danced with their newly discovered friends. Finally, it was time for us to leave and to our surprise, the girls who were reluctant to even stand next to the transgender community were now pleading to give them some more time so that they continue their conversations and hear each others’ amazing stories.
It was a life changing experience for the girls because I could hear them talk among themselves that trans people are also humans and should be allowed equal respect and position in our society. The girls were actually able to understand the kind of feelings that emerge when one is excluded from everything. Exclusion can be in any form and to any degree. The Tech Center girls shared stories when they felt excluded by their near and dear ones because of their identity as women: the mere fact of being a girl was the major reason for them being discriminated against and hence feeling excluded. This powerful experience was a triggering factor for many girls as they pledged that they will no longer be mute spectators to any sort of exclusion and discrimination within or outside their community. It was indeed a very self satisfying experience for me, too, because I could see a visible change among the girls.
We, at FAT, aim to take the girls for many more such learning and awakening experiences. On behalf of FAT, I extend my full gratitude to the बस! campaign for giving this opportunity to the girls of the Tech Centre, which helped them break several of their stereotypes and pre-conceived notions about the transgender community and become much more sensitive on issues around exclusion and discrimination. The interaction between these two communities was an extremely powerful experience. It helped every individual recognize the everyday struggles that some face by the same society, of which all of us are an integral part of.
Faiza is a team member at FAT who handles the organization's HR and operations
