Equal Community Foundation

Set up in 2009, Equal Community Foundation is a non-profit organisation based in Pune, India that works with men to end violence and discrimination against women. Our mission is to ensure that every man in India has the opportunity to study and practise gender equitable behaviour to end violence and discrimination against women. Why do we do what we do? Over 100 million women in India continue to face violence and discrimination at the hands of men. The traditional approach to tackling this problem of violence against women is to support women directly i.e. women’s empowerment. This approach does not tackle discrimination at its root and is alone not delivering the anticipated or required results in reducing inequality and violence. Women shoulder the burden of the empowerment process; whereas men, whose attitudes and behaviour sit at the root of the problem are absent from the solution. We believe that if we are to end violence and discrimination against women in this country, we must engage men as a part of the solution. How will we achieve our mission? We will deliver on our mission by inspiring and informing a new generation of social programming that engages men to end violence and discrimination against women. We will inspire and inform this movement by developing behaviour change programmes that empower men; researching and reporting on the approach in India; and developing a popular movement supporting the approach.