manual: women workers' rights and gender equality - International ...

A boy goes to school and a girl does
problem:
not go to school
Dinking husband
(right to education, right to equality) (picture No. 23)
(picture No. 22)
Exercise
Step 1
• Tell the following story to the participants
Story of Ratha (you can change the name to one common in the area)
Ratha is 28 years old and married to Sao. They live in a village and own a small house.
They have 3 children: 2 boys and a girl. The eldest son goes to school but the daughter
stays home to help with household work, the work on the fields and she often looks after
the baby son. The daughter is 8 years old. They would have enough money to send
Ratha’s daughter to school too but Sao uses a large share of the money for gambling and
drinking. He often comes home very drunk and is not able to work on the fields early in the
morning. When Ratha complains about it he beats her and one time he beat her so hard
that she hurt her arm very seriously. She was not allowed to go to a doctor.
Sao talked to an agent who promised to employ his daughter at a factory in the nearby
town, and she starts to work there. When Ratha complains about it Sao becomes angry
and beats her again. So Ratha keeps quiet but she really wants her daughter to go to
school and not work in the factory.
One of Ratha’s friends is member of a women’s saving group and she asks Ratha to join as
well. Ratha discusses it with Sao. He says that he does not allow her because she has to
do the work in the fields and in the house.
The same friend says that she should go somewhere for help because Sao is beating her
and Ratha does not look happy. But Ratha does not know where to go.
Step 2
• Ask the participants what kind of problems Ratha faces. When they bring up an issue as drawn
on a card, show it and display it on the ground or wall.
• If the participants do not come up with more issues and you still have some cards left, show
these cards to them and ask whether they think Ratha is facing this problem. Discuss all
problems briefly.
Step 3
• Ask the participants which problems are violations of the law.
• Put the cards with the issues they mention at the right side.
• If there are issues left, explain that these are also violations of the law.
• Only one card stays at the left side: the problem of the drinking husband. Explain that this is a
problem you have to solve yourself or with the help of family or friends. There are no laws to
protect you against a drinking husband.
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