About People for Parity in 89, Shiv Bhavan, 2nd Floor, Adchini, New Delhi

People for Parity is a social change organization that works to curb gender-based violence in India, via engaging youth to create deep understanding and action on gender violence in their lives and communities and engaging stakeholders like the police, school and university authorities, and others for effective prevention and redressal of gender-based violence.

Problem: Women’s safety and empowerment has consistently been a poorly included aspect of India’s otherwise incredible economic growth story. While India is otherwise seen as a fast emerging global force, its ratings on women’s rights parameters is much lower than many poorer or less developed countries.

While sexual assaults have become a societal norm in many parts of India, the brutality of the eventually fatal assault on a girl in the capital, Delhi, was a sharp reminder to the country of how helpless young women can be as they pursue livelihood on an everyday basis. In numbers, the estimated number of sexual assault cases against women in India is over 250,000 every year. What is most disturbing is that over 90% of these assaults are committed by people known to victims (family, neighbors, employers, teachers, friends), not strangers.

Approach:
--> Self Development: Building a deep understanding of gender-based violence and challenging it in our own lives
--> Community Development: Spreading understanding and awareness on gender-based violence in our community through relevant action projects, workshops or advocacy
--> Institutional Empowerment: Working with key public institutions like schools, colleges, police, public services to build their capacity to curb gender-based violence
--> Youth Development: Focus on developing young peoples’ potential to challenge gender-based violence in their own way, both in the society and in their own lives
--> Technology for Impact: Using, apart from other media, modern ICT to create change projects and to engage both young people and institutions. Focus on mobile technology

Active Programs:
1. Pratiti – Gender-based Violence (GBV) Prevention Program – PfP has partnered with 5 institutions across 5 different states and conducted workshops with over 1000 men and women on gender; violence against women and their role in curbing this malaise. The target audience of these workshops is –
- Young people aged 13-30 years
- Youth facilitators
- School counselors
- Corporate employees

2. Technology for Impact – PfP has developed the following products/services for use by women (and men) to access help in case of emergencies:
- Pukar Smartphone App: To send out distress signals with your location to family/friends, police and bystanders
- Pukar SMS Service: To get contact numbers of women, police and ambulance helpline in any city

3. Learning: Change Looms – PfP is a fellow in Change Looms – a learning and leadership journey offered by Pravah and ‘Commutiny - The Youth Collective’ to youth-led organizations targeting social change through youth development