Pathways to gender transformative change: Using evidence towards effective public systems to address gender-based violence in India

The framing of gender transformation has permeated the development sector. Many organizations and donors, including IDRC, are increasingly invested in supporting gender-transformative research efforts, which are defined as those aiming to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls not just for individual progress, but to transform gender power dynamics and structures at the community and societal level.

It is critical to understand how shifts in gender and power relations occur and the contributing factors behind them, including the role of research, yet these processes are seldom captured. To address this knowledge gap and to inform IDRC’s programming directions on gender, the Centre launched a call for proposals targeting new partners to carry out action research using feminist approaches.

This project is one of the four selected to contribute locally grounded evidence on gender- transformative change by addressing the critical challenge of gender-based violence (GBV). Proponents will examine the prevalence and nature of GBV experienced by young women in their natal homes in India, and aim to capture how prevailing inequalities and power imbalances in the legal and health systems impact the response provided to GBV survivors. Capacity strengthening in research and communications activities for local partners will contribute to the robustness of the findings and their use in advocacy and policy influence.

The project lead, American Jewish World Service, in collaboration with the Mumbai-based Centre for Enquiry into Health and Allied Themes, will engage local service provider organizations working to respond to GBV to apply a feminist participatory methodology. This will include analysis of records of violence, interviews, and focus group discussions, with the aim of informing policy recommendations that can render systems more gender-sensitive and responsive to the needs of women GBV survivors.