Parivartan — Coaching Boys Into Men, a Cricket-Based Bystander Programme

Parivartan ('transformation') is an Indian adaptation of the US evidence-based programme 'Coaching Boys Into Men', developed by the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) with the Indian NGO Breakthrough and local cricket associations. Rather than a stand-alone classroom curriculum, it trains cricket coaches in government-run middle schools in Mumbai to weave short weekly conversations about respect, gender equity and bystander intervention into their normal coaching sessions with adolescent male athletes.

The programme was evaluated with a controlled study design: baseline and 12-month follow-up surveys were administered to 309 male cricket athletes aged 10 to 16 across 46 urban middle schools in Mumbai — 27 schools whose coaches received Parivartan training, and 19 comparison schools whose coaches provided standard coaching without the programme's content.

Athletes coached by trained mentors showed significantly greater improvement in gender-equitable attitude scores than athletes in comparison schools. Gains in bystander intervention behaviour — boys speaking up when peers acted disrespectfully toward girls — were only marginally significant, a limitation the study authors reported candidly rather than overstating behavioural change.

Because it piggybacks on an activity (cricket) that is already central to many boys' lives and requires no separate classroom time, the model has since been scaled by Breakthrough to further schools and colleges elsewhere in India as a low-cost entry point for engaging boys in gender-based-violence prevention.