However, as boys learn how to help girls who are being harassed, they sometimes take this lesson too seriously, says Pravin Katke, programme coordinator at ECF. They’ll tell their sisters what not to wear, or make them afraid to go out alone. While well intentioned, this overprotectiveness can lead to dominance – exactly what ECF is trying to address.

In the starting stages of the programme, mentors emphasise that boys should only offer help when girls ask for it or when they are obviously in distress. They also tell them to call authorities in extreme situations, rather than potentially aggravating the situation by involving themselves.

In one such situation, Akshay heard his neighbours were arranging a marriage for their underage daughter (though the minimum legal age to marry for girls in India is 18, child marriage is still practised). He knew the girl’s parents would suspect he was her boyfriend if he confronted them. Instead, he alerted legal authorities and women’s rights organisations to convince the parents to cancel the marriage.

Homens and hombres

While ECF’s programme is tackling gender issues at a local, grassroots level, Promundo, an organisation founded in Brazil in 1997 and now based in Washington, DC, delivers a similar model on a global scale to men and boys in more than 25 countries, including Brazil, India, the US, and Balkan countries. Promundo’s Program H (for “homens” or “hombres”, the respective Portuguese and Spanish words for “men”) was created to mitigate urban violence among young men. Program H participants are between ages 10 and 24, and meet weekly for four months in community spaces such as schools; as at ECF, the groups are small, averaging 12 participants, and are facilitated by young men in their 20s. Like ECF’s, Promundo’s lessons are focused on topics such as violence against women, sexuality, and gender norms such as caregiving and household work.

According to Promundo’s newly released State of the World’s Fathers report, globally, “Girls spend 40% more time on unpaid work than boys of the same age.” This means girls cannot devote adequate time to playing, relaxing, and studying.