South Asia has historically experienced high rates of disparity in terms of gender equity. Across South Asia, rigid gender norms, and harmful perceptions of what it means to be a man or a woman, encourage men to engage in high risk behaviours, condone violence against women, grant men the power to initiate and dictate the terms of sex, and make it difficult for women to protect themselves from violence and to seek health services. However, we have being often not giving proper care towards how gender plays out in the lives of men and boys – to the detriment of women, and to the detriment of men and boys themselves. The narrow path of traditional masculinities might provide young boys with a sense of entitlement to power but it also chips away the possibilities of building healthy and equitable relationships with girls/women as well as other boys/men and traps them into a web of trauma and inadequacies.

MenEngage Alliance has it strong presence in the region with a number of strong country alliances of organisations committed towards working with boys and men to address issues related to gender-based violence and masculinities. The alliance is committed to broaden the enquiry and activism to include boys and men to promote gender equality and justice. Furthermore, there is another network South Asian Network to Address Masculinities (SANAM), with the focus on the capacity development on the issues of men and masculinities in the region. The strategies of change in the region are guided and fine tuned not only to reach diverse men, but to be able to identify potential allies and possible rifts in the camp of women and men.

This page provides a space for all across the region to share be connected with each other including sharing resources, information and experiences and mobilising each other around common issues.