Mishanbhai Satabhai Bhavadia, Surendranagar, Gujarat, says, “When I first started going to the meetings, I realised how wrong it was to lose my temper and hit my wife. I also realised that changes in our village will begin only if we make changes in our lives at home.

How else can I or anyone talk about ending violence against women when it’s happening in our own houses? Look, the biggest problem is denial: men and women refuse to accept that there are cases of violence in their homes or villages. Men deny it because it is in their interests to subjugate women, and women deny it because they don’t even know what violence means.

Our meetings show that women are more open to making changes … the men are more reluctant: they disagree with a lot of points. But they too have begun to come around to my way of thinking…it just takes more time and more effort.

Education is the way forward. I left school early…I can manage to read and write but still struggle a lot because I have to work hard…if there’s one thing that I’m going to do, it is to educate my children so they don’t have to face the same struggles as we do in the villages.”