Times of India Article on FADA

Saturday, August 15, 2009

SHARED MOMENTS
FATHERS DAY OUT

An initiative in some Delhi slums aims to strengthen the bond between men and their daughters

Neelam Raaj | TNN

Daughters are usually daddys girls but for 10-year-old Sargina, Nabab is a stranger. Hes often away, busy making a living sorting scraps from a garment factory so that he can feed his family of nine. Sargina looks after her younger siblings and helps her mother with domestic chores. Soon, things will change. Father and daughter will meet once a month with 20 other pairs at a programme designed to help them do something they dont , and not often enough: spend time together.

The programme, called the Father and Daughter Alliance (FADA), will not just strengthen a bond. It will sensitize fathers to the importance of sending their daughters to school. Traditionally, girls are closer to their mothers but men are the decision-makers . It is they who decide whether a daughter goes to school or not so we will engage them, says US-based Pedro Moreno who launched the India chapter of FADA in the Capital this week.
Even feminism, he says, has stopped demonizing men. Males are part of the problem but they can also be part of the solution, he says, whose teenage daughter Jessica accompanied him on his previous visit to India.

FADA, which has partnered with Delhi-based NGO Deepalaya, has made a small start by enrolling 20 girls in school. Next on the cards is fathers associations in two slum clusters Sanjay Colony and Jagdamba Camp where Deepalaya runs schools. One of its first members will be Rameshwar Prasad who plans to enlist other fathers. Most men in the slum still dont bother educating a daughter though many send their sons to English-medium schools. They just want the girl married off, he says. Prasad lives in a slum in Khirki village where dropout rates for girls are high.

Unesco statistics show that there is little gender parity in education. Of the 774 million illiterate adults worldwide, 64% are women. For the Indian girl child, the chances of getting an education are even slimmer. Unescos report released last year revealed that for every 100 boys out of school in India , the corresponding number of girls is a whopping 426.

The FADA initiative hopes to make a small dent in these figures by involving fathers. Men pass on not only their property to sons but also skills and self-esteem . Now, we want daughters to share this inheritance as well, says T K Mathew, who heads Deepalaya.
The NGO will impart formal education to the younger girls and vocational training to older ones who may not be able to cope with a rigid school system . Enrollment targets are 1,000 girls by early next year, after which FADA aims to open chapters in countries such as Afghanistan, Yemen and Guatemala where female literacy rates are low.

In India, the movement will begin with a dialogue and it wont just be daughters who benefit. Issues like domestic violence and alcohol abuse will also figure so that men realize that their responsibility goes beyond providing three meals for their families, says Moreno.

But for now, the challenge is clear. Fathers have to stop being distant onlookers and make an effort to see the world through their daughters eyes.

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