In May 2018, the UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development  organized a workshop on Prevention of Violent Extremism through Education (PVE-E) that brought together 25 young peacebuilders from across India. The 3-day intensive workshop involved understanding and exploring ways through which violent extremism can be prevented. An important aspect of the workshop was devoted for participants to design their own workshop that they can conduct in their local communities. The idea of conducting a workshop on “Understanding Identities” was germinated during this time period. Later, Akash Upase and Anis Syed decided to structure the idea and implement it with the youth in their city i.e. Mumbai. The workshop was decided to be targeted towards youth since they are an integral part in shaping the future society. 

One of the main reasons to conduct a workshop on identities was because of the important role it plays in our personal and social behavior. Majority of our actions are based on the identities we hold due to which we create a lot of stereotypes leading to discrimination and violent actions. In spite of identities being such an integral part of society, they are not usually questioned, reflected or discussed in open forums. Therefore, the workshop was designed in a way that it allows for critical thinking and self-work while providing a safe space for everyone to share. Thus, building on the quote - “If You Want to Change the World, Start with Yourself First.”To ensure that the workshop consisted of participants that are committed to both internal and external transformation, a selection process was carried out. Based on their application forms, a total of 15 participants were selected to collectively undergo this journey.

The participants were mainly college students/working employees from the fields of psychology, media, sociology, engineering, etc. There was a diversity observed across participants in terms of gender, economic status as well as religion. This diversity helped to conduct the workshop through various lenses and delve deeper into identities while honoring the diversity in the room.
The workshop was designed with the help of #YouthWagingPeace Action Guidelines for PVE-E and the process was supported by UNESCO MGIEP right from its planning to its completion. The Blue Ribbon Movement also supported the workshop on the local level.
The workshop was named “Understanding Identities: Breaking Stereotypes and Preventing Violence” and was divided into 3 phases: 

1. A 2-day immersive workshop: The 2-Day workshop took place on 17th and 18th of November 2018 at Don Bosco Matunga, Mumbai. The workshop was centered on comprehending how the society shapes our thoughts and actions in different ways. A safe space was created for participants to freely share their thoughts without the fear of being judged. The intention of the workshop was also to make people aware of their own identities and how it affects their daily actions on a personal level.
The first day of the workshop was focused on understanding how personal identities play out in our individual lives. Participants identified their own individual identities that are either given to them by society or are chosen by them. This bifurcation of identities further paved the way to understand how distant/close these identities are to them. This exploration for the participants was carried out through interactive activities and group sharing.

The second day observed a transition from understanding one’s identities to understanding how these identities play out in interactions with society. Participants identified how holding onto a particular identity can cause stereotypes which can further result in violence. This was then understood through a role play wherein three groups assumed different identities - A liberal parent, a conservative parent and a single parent. The role play required them to step into the shoes of the given identity and answer a given situation using the assigned identity only. This allowed participants to truly assume the character and empathise with it without allowing their personal biases to set in. In the debrief, one of the participants shared that “The  Identity of being liberal often does not allow me to be empathetic towards my conservative mother and the conversation usually results in a conflict between us. The workshop helped me identify this pattern. I will now be more aware of the violence that I cause towards my mother because of my strong belief that my mother should behave in a certain way.” At the end of the workshop, the participants pledged towards doing an action that will help them explore and work on some of the stereotypes that they hold as well as help others understand and break some of their stereotypes as well.

2. Action-reflection phase: After understanding the interconnection between identities, stereotypes and violence, participants then set out to question some of their strong beliefs through the means of their respective action-reflection projects. This helped them understand how their beliefs pan out in their interactions with other people.  This phase also included a one on one mentoring session by workshop facilitators Akash and Anis to assist participants with their projects as well as to help them deepen their understanding of the topic. The end of the process marked a shift in the participant's belief systems. Zahra Naqvi, a participant spoke about her meeting with one of her friend’s father who is a scientist at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. She quoted "he was an epitome of who a scientist would look like - A grey haired man, wearing a loose off-white shirt with old school spectacles, a white moustache, who could give competition to Einstein by his appearance.  But when I started to have a conversation, he told me that he was a Game of Thrones fan, had watched all the episodes of Narcos and Breaking Bad, loved playing pool in his free time and rock music was his favorite genre! I was amazed by his interests and whatever he told me was in stark contrast to the image I had formed of him! And that whole night I contemplated what makes us form such opinions without meeting the person." Similar instances were observed in the case of other participants. Anjana, a supporter of the LGBTQI+ community spoke about her experience - “One of my acquaintances had a very hateful opinion towards the community and about the question, to which I was extremely intolerant after a certain point in the conversation. I decided to go back to that friend of mine and have a healthy conversation on the same topic as a part of my workshop project, only to realize how much more patient and flexible I had become while talking to him. I was able to keep the platform open throughout the conversation, facilitating me in expanding my intellectual and emotional threshold, which helped me to correct some of his long-held misconceptions and superstitious beliefs about the community and lessen his hatred towards the community.”
 

3. Closing Workshop: The closing workshop was marked by participants sharing their experiences from the action-reflection phase and the learnings they've gained in the process. This was done through creative ways using drama, poetry and storytelling as a medium. Further, there was a discussion on how to take the learnings forward - wherein participants discussed how they would like to deepen their understanding of the topic and the actions they'd like to take both individually and at a group level. Some ideas that came up in the discussion were to “read more on the topic and share the learnings with other participants, conduct study circles in the same group to stay connected, deepen the roots and allow for both personal and collective growth, plan a one day event for collective action in the society and so on.” The workshop concluded with feelings of extreme gratitude expressed through the web of interconnectedness and appreciation towards everyone who successfully completed the three phases.

The entire experience of executing this workshop right from submitting the proposal, designing the workshop and conducting them was very fulfilling backed with a lot of learnings. The process was worth all the hard work that was put in and was very rewarding at the end. We would once again like to extend our heartfelt gratitude towards UNESCO MGIEP and the Blue Ribbon Movement for supporting us in this initiative. We plan to conduct more of these workshop on a larger scale and build on the existing work.

For more information about the workshop:

Mr Akash Upase - akashupase786@gmail.com

Ms Anis Syed - anissyed25@gmail.com

For more information about #YouthWagingPeace:

Mr Kuany – s.kuany@unesco.org