Capacity Building Workshop

Mukti organized a one-day Capacity Building workshop for the city office staff at Bijali Utsav House, Baruipur, Kolkata on 20th December 2022. 13 Mukti city office staff participated in the workshop. Mr. Sankar Halder – Founder President of Mukti and Ms. Nandita Jayraman Program Manager – Rights conducted the session.

The topic of the workshop was the power Petrarch hierarchy. Mainly power had been defined in the workshop. At the beginning of the session, the participants were asked to introduce each other by identifying each other’s good qualities. A game of rope was played to make the participants understand the objective of the game. Through the game, the participants were made to understand that resources always remain with powerful people and they are not comfortable sharing the resources with anyone. If we can take proper strategy or if we can change the attitude of the powerful man then there will be equal distribution of resources and a better-developed environment will be created.

After the introductory part, another game named ”Power Work” was played. In the “Power Work” game different types of characters were created of one type of power depending on social status, gender, age, religion, cast etc. Participants are given one situation at a time in terms of character and are monitored on how positively they can handle that situation. Depending on the situation, some participants score well and some legged behind. It can be seen that the one who is younger is behind and the one who is in the front row is holding a Panchayat head or an equivalent position. This game is organized to explain the difference in the position of people in society for different criteria of different people. By identifying the differences, the participants try to analyze them among themselves.

After analyzing the issues it is listed that “Power” can be gained in different forms like – money, education, religion, skill, social position, asset, age etc. The relationship between the powerful person and the helpless person lies in oppression, contempt and exploitation. Participants then try to relate how they are using power to those around them – do they have to bow down to someone who is powerful or how do they behave to others when they acquire power? A person should have to balance the negative feelings that arise with power. She/ he has to balance the situation by keeping the negative feelings under her/his control.

A person begins to think of himself as superior when he gets possessed by the negative side of power. He thinks himself omniscient and begins to humiliate the people around him. There needs to be a space in between watching, learning and exercising power – a space where we can review whether we are doing right or wrong. If we can follow this process then any powerful person will understand how to use power properly.