The Gender Lab: Engaging Boys to Advance Gender Equality in India

9:30 am ET: Registration
10:00 am–11:00 am ET: Discussion

Christie’s New York, 20 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY

From 2018 to 2019, 2,500 boys from 61 schools in Mumbai, Indore, and Delhi, India, took a journey to redefine masculinity and stand up to gender-based violence. The Gender Lab Boys Program is the brainchild of cofounders Akshat Singhal and Ayushi Banerji, strong believers in the power of collective action who say they are out to change a patriarchal society, one boy at a time. Engaging boys, they say, can disrupt discriminatory social norms and the abuses of power that lead to violence against women. Please join us for a discussion to learn more about The Gender Lab in India, an innovative program that Lotus Circle funds have supported. The work of the Gender Lab for Boys will be recognized with the Lotus Leadership Award in 2020.

Akshat Singhal is cofounder of The Gender Lab/The Blue Ribbon Movement (BRM), an ecosystem of social initiatives which builds leadership for a better world. Akshat has over 10 years of experience in the social sector engaging in the space of gender equality, youth leadership, environment, civic awareness, and social entrepreneurship. Within BRM, he leads The Gender Lab to promote gender equality by engaging young girls and boys. Akshat was selected as one of the 50 World Economic Forum Global Shapers to attend the 2014 Annual Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He has a post-graduate diploma in Business Management, and a bachelor’s degree in Management Studies from Mumbai University. Akshat is a 2019 Asia Foundation Development Fellow. 

Ayushi Banerji is cofounder and CEO of The Gender Lab, which works to build gender equality across India by enabling school children and young people to question gender norms and expectations. The Gender Lab has worked with over 23,000 adolescent girls, 3,000 adolescent boys, and 19 young women (20-25 years old) to engage them in social action in their communities, which enables shifts in mindsets, behaviors, and actions. Ayushi believes that if individual mindsets change there will be long term change across generations. Her dream is that every adolescent and individual in the world gets a chance to change their story and take action for a better world. Ayushi is an Acumen India Fellow, World Economic Forum Global Shaper, and a G(irls)20 Ambassador since 2015.