Oxfam Equality Clubs

Oxfam India set up ‘Equality Clubs’ in schools across the country in association with Young Leaders for Active Citizenship (YLAC India). Oxfam supported YLAC in this endeavour until 2022.  

Background 

Oxfam and YLAC India came together with this fully funded initiative to familiarise students with the different types of inequalities – gender, economic, religious or otherwise – that exist in society, help build empathy and appreciation of one’s own privilege, and most importantly, inspire students to take action.

It was our belief that these clubs would serve as a great platform for students to build critical thinking, explore challenging societal problems, break stereotypes and gain the skills necessary to take on leadership. The themes of the club were inspired by and aligned with Oxfam’s global programmes that aimed to tackle equality-related issues at its core. 

The Equality Clubs aimed to enable students by: 


•  Equipping them with the skills to take on social leadership

•  Helping them build empathy and appreciation of their own privilege 


•  Familiarising them with different types of inequalities that exist in society


•  Inspiring them to create impact 

To facilitate the work of these clubs, Oxfam and YLAC India supported schools free of cost by providing a dedicated curriculum, skill-based workshops, support for interactive sessions with experts and an overall framework of active citizenship to enhance your students’ understanding and ability to create impact.

Oxfam Equality Club’s have been set up in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Jamshedpur, Pune, Raipur, Mumbai, Delhi, Chandigarh, Jorhat, Indore, Nashik, Guwahati, Baroda, Ahmedabad among others. 

How Equality Clubs Worked

Our vision was a one-year cycle where the club actively worked on three pre-decided themes and a fund-raiser for Oxfam as follows: 

Why did schools join the Equality Club?
•    RECOGNITION: In 2019, the selected school were one of the few schools in the country to run Oxfam India’s Equality Clubs.
•    COMMUNITY: Partner schools became key stakeholders in the broader Oxfam and YLAC communities. These networks helped schools explore new avenues and opportunities.
•    CAPACITY BUILDING: Participation in the programme helped build the school’s own capacity to be running active citizenship and other social awareness programs.

Roles and expectations from partner schools:

1. Interest and intent to run the club for an entire year
2. Provision of a dedicated teacher-in-charge to lead and run the club at the school
3. Time allocation in the academic calendar
4. Commitment to organize initiation and culmination events
5. Access to resources like classrooms, conference rooms, conference facility, printing facility, transport facility etc. to run the club activities smoothly
6. Encouragement to students to actively participate in club activities

For more information and any other queries, contact our partners YLAC India at office@ylacindia.com!