Nayana Chowdhury, CEO of Breakthrough, discusses the organization's mission to drive cultural change for gender equality and its impact on Indian society.
In conversation with Nayana Chowdhury, CEO, Breakthrough. With over two decades of experience, Nayana has worked with various grassroots organisations, as well as national and international grant-making organisations. Her work has taken her across India, where she has extensively engaged with vulnerable communities, including Dalits, women and tribes particularly vulnerable tribal groups.
Your journey in the development sector has spanned over two and a half decades. How have these experiences shaped your leadership philosophy as you take on the role of CEO at Breakthrough?
I strongly feel this has been a transformative experience for me. These experiences have played a crucial role in influencing and shaping my leadership philosophy over the years. Working with grassroots organisations, I have seen firsthand the power of community engagement and the importance of listening to the voices of those we aim to work with.
These experiences have taught me that leadership is not just about directing initiatives but about creating an environment of inclusivity and empowerment. I strive to cultivate a leadership style that emphasises collaboration, collective accountability, encouraging diverse perspectives and innovation within our team.
Breakthrough has a strong focus on driving cultural change for gender equality. What are your priorities for taking this mission forward, and how do you envision expanding its impact in the next five years?
As CEO of Breakthrough, my priorities will focus on advancing our mission of driving cultural change for gender equality and aligning Breakthrough라이브 바카라 work even more with the national vision of empowering girls and women for a better future. This, I envision, will be achieved by greater engagement with young people. We will continue to work with schools to integrate and implement gender transformative curriculum programs.
Recently, we also collaborated with editors, scriptwriters, directors, and actors from Bollywood to spark conversations about how the film industry can play a role in driving attitudinal and behavioural shifts toward gender equality.
In the next five years, I envision Breakthrough playing a pivotal role in reshaping societal narratives around gender, creating an environment where gender equality is a fundamental societal value.
Can you tell us how the work undertaken by Breakthrough in the communities, especially keeping adolescents at the Centre of it has yielded results?
Breakthrough's focus on adolescents has yielded significant results over the years. By engaging young people in discussions around gender equality, health, and rights, we have fostered greater awareness and empowerment. Our programs have led to positive changes in attitudes vis a vis gender norms, encouraging young people to challenge stereotypes and advocate for their rights.
Additionally, our partnerships with state education departments in Punjab and Odisha have helped us integrate gender transformative curriculum into the school syllabi. We will continue to focus on this, going forward as well.
You have extensive experience in gender-transformative programs. What are some of the key challenges and opportunities you foresee in scaling Breakthrough라이브 바카라 collaborations with public institutions?
Punjab and Odisha are the two states where we have been working in partnership with the education departments. We're getting calls from other governments such as Rajasthan government and Delhi. A major challenge for us is the shortage of resources. But we can be technical advisors in doing this anywhere in the country.
However, we also see significant opportunities, such as working alongside the government departments for broader outreach and impact, integrating gender transformative curriculum into more schools with the help of the state education departments.
With Breakthrough marking 25 years of impact, what do you believe are the most significant achievements in changing societal norms around gender?
Over the past two decades, Breakthrough worked with 1.3 million adolescents directly and reached 1 million adolescents through the school system with its methodology of gender attitude change.
Breakthrough was launched with the critically acclaimed music video ‘‘Mann ke Manjeeré.’ The music video was based on the true life of a woman who was forced to leave her abusive home and become a truck driver. The music video received widespread attention, not only in India but outside the country as well. This was one of the turning points in our journey.
In 2008, we launched another campaign called ‘Bell Bajao’, asking men and boys to stand up against domestic violence, through a simple action like ‘Ringing the Bell’. That campaign went viral and we received support from the government of India as well. As a result, it reached over 243 million people in the country. It was adopted in nine other countries, spanning different languages. It was a pivotal moment and it established us as a campaigning organisation.
was another critical moment in our journey.
The intersection of gender and education is central to Breakthrough라이브 바카라 programs. What is your vision for engaging young people as changemakers in this journey?
Currently, Breakthrough works in states such as Haryana, Delhi-NCR, Jharkhand, and Uttar Pradesh directly in 13 districts and 566 village/urban clusters. As we build capacity in young people, by fostering aspiration, leadership, agency and negotiation skills, we enable a generation to shift towards a gender-equal culture. When gender norms change, everything for the girl changes and she can aspire for more. Our work in communities is contributing to the steady rise in the age of marriage and the number of girls who stay in school.
As young people rise against gender-based violence, we also support them with necessary tools that shape public narratives and inspire people to build a world of equality, dignity and justice.
Final thoughts: In your opinion, what impact can feminist leadership have on organisations and society?
This idea is very close to my heart. I believe feminist leadership can provide an alternative form of leadership that the world really needs at this point in time. The traditional leadership models ask the leader to be stoic, strong, know-it-all whereas feminist leadership humanises the leader. Herein you see a leader who does not know it all but has immense faith in the collective will and intelligence of a group of people dedicated towards a vision, to find the answer. It is indeed the motto of “together we can” in action. This kind of leadership will have an immense impact on the society as a whole, wherein people will be able to take more accountability and will inspire others through the authentic lives they live.