The document discusses an innovative approach called BaLA (Building As Learning Aid) developed by architects Kabir and Preeti Vajpeyi that uses school buildings and spaces as tools for learning. It describes how elements of buildings like doors, floors, walls, and outdoor spaces can be designed or utilized to teach children concepts in exciting hands-on ways. The approach has been implemented in over 10,000 schools across 19 states in India, improving the learning environment and education quality.

1. VIII kaleidoscope glimpses Book mark leisure different strokes good life 23 november 2014
Architect’s eyeview of a school building
Venu K KodimelA
Achild begins to learn from his
immediate surroundings right
after birth and it continues in
the outside world. But things begin to
change as school becomes a building
block in overall development of a child.
However, not enough emphasis is given
to the planning of a school building, es-pecially
in present times, when getting
enough space for a school is in itself a
challenge. In such a scenario, a novel
idea can radically change the entire
learning process.
“A school is supposed to encourage
learning and teach social skills but it is
stunting child’s growth,” says Kabir Va-jpeyi,
an expert in learning environment
in pre-school and elementary schools in
the country.
Kabir and his wife PreetiVajpeyi, both
architects by profession, have developed
BaLA – Building As Learning Aid,
which has brought a sea change in pre-schools
and anganwadis across the
country. It has begun with the setting up
of Vinyas, Centre for Architectural Re-search
and Design at New Delhi in
1996.
They came up with an idea of using
a building or premises of school as a
tool for learning. Elements of a building
such as floor, ceiling, walls, windows,
doors, furniture, corridors, steps, terrace,
open spaces, backyard and playground
could be used to create new learning re-sources
so that a child acquires knowl-edge
while the elements continue to
serve their basic purpose.
A door opening to protractor gives an
idea of degrees to young minds. Simi-larly,
a painted solar system in the court-yard
gives an idea of outer space. The
floors could be redesigned to incorpo-rate
traditional and indoor games such
chess with low cost material available
locally.
“An adult’s perspective comes in the
way of child’s cognitive, emotional, and
social development. The school repre-sents
a prison for child with its dull
spaces. The classrooms fixed with win-dows
and grills for the safety of furni-ture
don’t serve any purpose for the
children.”
“We have decided to focus on govern-ment
run schools as
they cater to 80 per-cent
of students in
the country,” said
Kabir, who was in
Hyderabad recently.
Reeling out national
statistics, he said 36
million children
study in 1.32 million
pre-schools and an-ganwadis
whereas
200 million study in
1.36 million elemen-tary
schools. Most of
them are located in the
rural areas.
BaLA has partnered
with 19 states out of 36
states and union territo-ries
Numbered steps teach
children about ascending
and descending order
and reached more than 1
lakh schools since 2005. As a result
more than 1 lakh schools were devel-oped
with BaLA ideas as per official sta-tistics.
However, Kabir says about
10,000 have really benefited from their
ideas.
Acknowledging Kabir’s efforts,
Ashoka Fellowship was awarded to him
in 2012, in addition to the prestigious
Skoch Award constituted by Gujarat
government in 2013. The Centre ap-pointed
him as an Advisor, Infrastruc-ture,
Sarva Shikha Abiyan to Ministry
of HRD during 2010- 2013.
To overcome hurdles in implementa-tion
of the programme, Kabir believes
that administers, planners, principals,
teachers, engineers, architects, children
and community should contribute to
school development process. This
A door opens
into a protractor.
A child could
measure angle
with a door
brings
innova-tion
at different lev-els
and sense of
ownership among
the stakeholders,
which is crucial to
success of the idea in
planning, implemen-tation,
operation and
effective use.
Quoting a case study
from Bharuch in Gu-jarat,
Kabir said the
quality of education has
improved in Saradana-gar
Upper Primary
School. Students go to
school an hour early to
complete their home
work with the help of
seniors and love to spend
extra time in the school!
A door opening to
protractor gives an
idea of degrees to
young minds.
Similarly, a painted
solar system in the
courtyard gives an
idea of outer space
Aditi Bishnoi
In 1995, Gertrude Mongella, Secre-tary
General of the Fourth World
Conference on Women in Beijing,
had declared that ‘there is [a] need to
look at women's issues in a holistic man-ner
and address them as part of overall
societal and developmental concerns. …
It will not be possible to attain sustain-able
development without cementing
the partnership of women and men in
all aspects of life… It is now the turn of
men to join women in their struggle for
equality’.
Nearly two decades on, the voices
calling for inclusion of men and boys in
the global fight for gender equality and
putting an end to violence against
women that affects over a billion
women worldwide have only grown
louder. In India, rigid patriarchal norms,
which tip the gender balance firmly in
the favour of men, have severely re-stricted
this positive discourse of
change. Even today, a majority of
women are forced to accept and inter-nalise
male dominance in their lives.
They have no real say, whether it is
about picking what to wear or deciding
on the number of children they want to
have.
How can Indian men be motivated to
stand up for the women in their lives?
How can they be enabled to discard
their sexist outlook and help in redefin-ing
the existing gender roles? Answers
to these questions lie in figuring out the
mindset of desi men to ascertain what
informs their actions and impressions of
acceptable behaviour. After all, how can
effective gender equality be achieved
without a clear understanding of how
their thinking can be influenced.
The new study, ‘Masculinity, Intimate
Partner Violence and Son Preference in
India’, undertaken by the United Na-tions
Population Fund (UNFPA) and
the International Centre for Research on
Women (ICRW), takes a look at how
the average Indian male interprets the
idea of ‘masculinity’ and how it shapes
his interactions with women and in-creases
his desire for sons.
Whereas the notion of masculinity
can be expressed in a variety of ways,
this study explores two areas that are
particularly important in the Indian con-text:
intimate partner violence and son
preference. It’s a well-established fact
that Indian women experience intense
social and familial pressure to produce
sons and the failure to do so increases
the threat of violence and abandonment
in marriage.
Indeed, not all men think, feel or re-spond
in the same way, which is why the
study employs an innovative masculin-ity
index to measure the degree of be-havioural
rigidity, based on the levels of
control men practice in intimate rela-tionship
as well as their attitudes to-wards
gender equality.
According to Frederika Meijer,
UNFPA India Representative, “Gen-dered
ideas of masculinity and child-hood
experiences are significant
contributing factors behind men using
violence. This research identifies alter-native
expressions of masculinity that
offer pointers to effectively engage men
and boys in achieving gender equality. It
identifies triggers that could enable them
to become change agents in addressing
gender discrimination.”
So, how does the average Indian male
understand masculinity? Judging from
the telling responses of the 9,205 men
interviewed for the study, he is con-vinced
that ‘mardangi’ (masculinity) is
all about acting tough, freely exercising
his privilege to lay down the rules in per-sonal
relationships, and, above all, con-trolling
women.
Take a look
One-in-three men surveyed didn’t
allow their wives to wear clothes of
their choice.
Sixty-six per cent men believed that
they had “a greater say than their
wife/partner in the important deci-sions
that affect us”.
In the bedroom, 75 per cent men ex-pected
their partners to instantly
agree to having sex if they so desired.
Moreover, over 50 per cent didn’t ex-pect
their partners to use contracep-tives
without their permission.
Clearly, “being a real man” is charac-terised
by authority, while a woman has
to prove her femininity by epitomising
the qualities of “tolerance and accept-ance”.
Any departure from these man-nerisms
and she would definitely risk
provoking a violent reaction.
Sure enough, the study shows a very
high prevalence of intimate partner vio-lence
in India. Around two-out-of-five
men from the seven study states of Uttar
Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan,
Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab and
Haryana were found to be ‘rigidly mas-culine’
in their attitude and behaviour,
as they firmly stated that women should
neither be seen nor heard.
What’s more, 60 per cent admitted to
using violence to assert their dominance
over their partner if she so much as even
tried to step out of her traditional roles
or was unable to meet the expectation
of bearing sons. In fact, more than half
– 52 per cent – of the 3,158 women sur-veyed,
too, talked about experiencing
some form of violence during their life-time,
with 38 per cent suffering physical
violence, like being kicked, beaten,
slapped, choked and burned, and 35 per
cent subjected to emotional violence, in-cluding
insults, intimidation and threats.
While Odisha and Uttar Pradesh
emerged as the states with the highest
incidence of intimate partner violence
at 75 per cent, Punjab and Haryana fol-lowed
at 43 per cent and Maharashtra at
37 per cent.
“The study reaffirms and demon-strates
that addressing inequitable gen-der
norms and masculinity issues are at
the heart of tackling the root causes of
intimate partner violence and son pref-erence,”
states Luis Mora, Chief, Gen-der-
Human Rights and Culture,
UNFPA.
If men with discriminatory gender
views are more inclined towards physi-cally
abusing their partner, then they are
also the ones more likely to want sons,
affirms the study. Male children are cen-tral
to Indian families as they stand to
inherit property, carry forward the fam-ily
lineage and participate in specific re-ligious
rituals. However, this attitude
only consolidates their status as the cus-todians
of patriarchal values. Little
wonder, India’s level of discrimination
against girls is among the strongest in
the world, and is demonstrated early
through the heinous practice of sex se-lection.
Indeed, even the latest Census
2011 data notably reveals the child sex
ratio in the country has dropped from
927 girls per 1,000 boys to an all-time
low of 918. Incidentally, while examin-ing
the extent of son preference, the
study measured daughter discrimination
and found that on an aggregate over a
third of the men and women showed
both high daughter discrimination and
son preferring attitudes.
Undoubtedly, the traditional con-struct
of masculinity increases the pro-clivity
for violence and son preference
among men. But, in order to be able to
enlist them to become a part of the so-lution,
and not the problem, a couple of
factors need to be taken into account.
Firstly, the study catalogues economic
stress as a major trigger for both vio-lence
against women and the desire for
sons. A crisis that threatens their posi-tion
Children improve
interpersonal skills
through games
The universe at your feet! A
painting on the floor
represents the solar system
as the primary providers instantly
prompts them to lash out. Simultane-ously,
it reiterates their belief that more
male children can guarantee better fi-nancial
security.
The other aspect that plays an essen-tial
part in intensifying conventional
masculine attitudes is childhood expe-riences.
The more men witness their fa-ther
exercising greater influence at
home in their formative years the less
likely they are to develop gender equi-table
attitudes. Says Ravi Verma, Re-gional
Director, ICRW-Asia, “The
findings of the study are extremely clear
on lasting impact of childhood experi-ences.
It is high time we begin to seri-ously
think how we wish to bring up
our boys and also present ourselves as
adults to younger ones within the fami-lies.”
If patriarchy has hurt women griev-ously,
then misplaced impressions of
masculinity have damaged men. The
Masculinity study makes an urgent call
for developing policy that builds men’s
confidence to behave differently.
Though it makes several recommenda-tions,
two solutions that offer the prom-ise
of real transformation involve
breaking the cycle of discrimination by
reaching out to young boys with fresh
ideas of masculinity that are not based
on power or authority, and ensuring
quality education for both sexes.
MAKING DIFFERENCE
Learning redefined
Kabir and Preeti Vajpeyi
PERSPECTIVE
The traditional construct of masculinity obstructs men from
standing up for and with the women related to them. This picture is
for representational purpose only. (Photos: Pamela Philipose)
Deconstructing Mardangi
The more boys see their fathers
exercising greater influence at home in
their formative years, it is less likely that
they develop gender equitable attitudes