1.11 Beginning with Ourselves: Patriarchy, SHeroes and the Training of Changemakers

Kamla Bhasin is an Indian feminist, activist, author and facilitator. She is the Co-Founder of "Sangat" – A Global Feminist Network. She facilitates Sangat's annual South Asian Feminist Capacity Building Course on Gender, Sustainable Livelihoods, Human Rights and Peace. She is also the South Asia Coordinator of "One Billion Rising" - a global campaign to end violence against women and girls. Kamla worked with the FAO for 27 years where her worked focused on rural development and women's empowerment in Thailand, Bangladesh, India and other Asian countries. Kamla has written extensively on gender, women’s empowerment, participatory and sustainable development, participatory training, media and communication. Most of her books are written for activists and development workers. She has also written a large number of songs and slogans for the women's movement and books for children. She speaks to us about trickle down theory vs evaporation theory, top down development not reaching the poor, the importance of local knowledge and leadership in development, peoples participation, rural realities and her work in rural journalism in the 1970s, intersectionality, hierarchies in international development organizations, her life-long commitment to the training of change agents, collective learning experiences, capitalist patriarchy, and much more. She joins us from New Delhi, India.