Diversity in
Society toolkit

The 'DIS kit' is a participatory, peer facilitated approach to appreciating multiple identities.

"...The tussle for control over politics, society and limited resources lies at the heart of many cases of violence and intolerance. Yet, groups and individuals seeking control often claim their actions are justified by narrow understandings of race, ethnicity, culture and religion. The prevalence and strength of such politics and related intolerance and violence is also impacting all areas of development work, particularly on Gender Rights..."

- Excerpt from the Oxfam GB IaM Concept Note

Also see Change Makers Tools

Background

In early 2009, We Can Campaign representatives from India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan met for a workshop on addressing the problem of fundamentalism. The vision was to evolve a strategy to empower Change Makers to prevent fundamentalist forces from derailing their work in Gender Rights.

The DIS kit was designed by late 2009, and pretested in West Bengal (India) and Khulna (Bangladesh) in early 2010. Later that year, it was disseminated to a few campaign partners in India.

In early 2012, under the leadership of Oxfam GB, the kit was tested in a wider context in West Bengal, Orissa, Gujarat (India) and Sindh (Pakistan). Data from these tests will be available soon.

About the kit

The DIS kit uses an approach which makes it possible to address sensitive social issues such as religious intolerance, even in communities where there has been conflict and where significant levels of polarisation exist among different groups.
The toolkit requires facilitation. Although in some cases it can be facilitated by Change Makers without any additional input, a brief training on the use of this toolkit is recommended.

The kit comprises a booklet and a set of picture cards. It is currently available in English, Hindi, Gujarati and Bengali. (2013)

Booklet: "I am One, I am Many"

The DIS booklet is in two parts. The first part explains some of the basic ideas through examples and questions. This part can be used by a Change Maker individually, or with a group of friends. If used in a group, the questions form a basis for discussions and sharing.

The second part has instruction on several games that can be played using the picture cards. Simple instructions include sum-up statements to reflect on after each game. Most games are played in a small group.

Download

DIS Booklet English (PDF, 1 MB)

Identities Picture Cards

Picture Cards are visual representations of different identities that a person can have. The cards are colour coded into categories - e.g. Gender, Religion, Education, Role in the Family, and more. Each category has different identity-images, and an "Other" card to represent any identity not included in that category.

The pack includes a set of blank cards, to be used in one of the games to add to the range of identity-images.

Download

DIS Cards English (PDF, 1 MB)

left: the number of identities it takes to guess the name of a famous Bengali cricketer. remaining : Test sessions facilitated by Change Makers in different communities (West Bengal, 2011)