The Church of North India (CNI) is planning to teach boys about masculinity and parenting.
CNI children's concern worker Sanjana Das said in November 2006: "There is a huge need to develop a module on fatherhood and masculinity, working with boys.
"We are looking at how we are working with our own Sunday school boys, and our youth groups. Then we will look at how to work with the young men. Slowly we will come up to the fathers. We will deal with the potential fathers now."
Already parts of the CNI's training programmes and workshops cover the issue of the difficulty with dealing with emotions. "In our country it is: A girl cannot laugh loud and boys cannot cry," Das explained.
Teaching is also needed to make boys aware of structures that oppress girls. For example, the demand for dowry makes female babies unpopular, as they are seen as a burden in the future. Due to a preference for boys, abortion of female foetuses and female infanticide are commonplace.
Das has found that when she urges girls to be strong and resist marriage when a dowry is involved, a lot of them tell her to talk to the boys about the issue. And it's as important to empower fathers as it is to empower mothers to create gender equality, Das said. For example, if you teach women about family planning and not men it causes conflict rather than breaking down barriers.
Usually the church focuses on women when talking about parenting, but fathering is important too, she said. Issues such as their struggle to show affection need to be dealt with. "In our culture sometimes the fathers do not even know how to express their love, even to hug their daughter or son."