Pakistan, Hyderabad District, Sindh Province | Preventing Violence Against Women and Girls through Sport and Play
Since 2002, Right to Play has worked with hundreds of thousands of children and young people in Pakistan, to shift the social norms that perpetuate and condone violence. Through its schools-based Sport and Play programme, teachers are provided with curricula and trained to challenge the acceptability of VAWG.
Globally, activists and researchers have pointed to the contribution of harmful alcohol and substance use conditions to the occurrence and severity of intimate partner violence (IPV). There has been much debate over the relationship and whether it is truly causal. To date, there has been limited evidence about whether interventions to prevent harmful alcohol use and treat common mental health problems have an impact on IPV outcomes, and whether gender-transformative interventions that seek to prevent IPV can reduce harmful alcohol use and improve mental health. Available evidence on these associations has largely been from the global North. DFID’s What Works to Prevent Violence Against Women and Girls Global programme (What Works) has generated new evidence on these associations from evaluations of IPV prevention interventions in a range of settings in the global South, including peri-urban Zambia, rural Rwanda and Ghana, and urban informal settlements in South Africa, with promising findings for IPV prevention.
Khuwaja, H. M. A., Karmaliani, R., McFarlane, J., Somani, R., Gulzar, S., Ali, T. S., ... & Jewkes, R. (2018). The intersection of school corporal punishment and associated factors: Baseline results from a randomized controlled trial in Pakistan. PLoS one, 13(10), e0206032.
This section of the Manual contains 100 games. These games promote learning and growth for every child who participates. The games have been revised and tested in order to ensure that each game is easy to follow and contributes to the holistic development of the child.
Right to Play Pakistan designed and implemented a school-based programme that used sport and play to reduce peer violence and corporal punishment, improve mental health, and change social norms in support of gender equality and non-violence. The programme reached 8,000 children in 40 public schools, with an equal number of boys and girls benefitting. It was rigorously evaluated by Aga Khan University.
This Evidence Brief presents the findings from the end-line evaluation. These show significant reductions in both boys’ and girls’ perpetration and victimisation of peer violence, experience of corporal punishment both at home and in school, and witnessing of acts of domestic violence. Levels of depression and patriarchal gender attitudes have also improved. The positive results demonstrate the potential of investing in sports and play based learning in schools and communities to prevent violence.
12-year-old Mahnoor – clad in a simple blue and white uniform with the usual head-scarf -skipped home happily after a regular day at school in Hyderabad, Pakistan. With mundane thoughts of school and homework on her mind, she did not focus on the shadow closing in behind her. It was only when a rough hand grabbed her from behind the neck dragging her towards a deserted, dead-ended alley, does Mahnoor realize that she is being assaulted. Realizing the stranger’s ill-intent, Mahnoor snapped out of her reverie, and fought back. Kicking, biting, screaming – she continued her struggle eventually managing to break free from her assailant, and sprint home.
Right to Play is a global organisation that uses transformative power of sport and play to educate and empower youth. This report indicated the importance of their work in Pakistan (143rd of 144 in the Gender Inequality Index) and outlines how a program of sports and play in Hyderabad is helping to prevent VAWG. Featuring a look at the activities, outreach and scope of the program, and its expected outcomes.