Day 4: Labyrinth: How to get from a problem to a solution?

"Labyrinth" is a policy design simulation game designed for Prajnya by Hemant Shivakumar of Round One. 

Once we decided it was going to have to be an all-digital campaign, the one thing we were sure of was that we could not survive 16 webinars in a row! In the search for different formats, gaming seemed like a fun option and we turned to Hemant, who has also been a volunteer at Prajnya for over a decade. 

We won't tell you too much about it--so that it will still work for you when you get to play. But essentially Labyrinth poses a policy problem and asks participants to work on a solution. As they move through the policy "labyrinth," the game throws a few spanners in the works and creates contingencies that have to be factored in. The point is to understand the complexity of the process. Have we given too much away already? Still, you have to be there! So if you'd like to experience what it is like, let us know and we can plan a session. 

The ten participants from yesterday's session had to find a solution for a city's rising (what else during the 16 Days) gender violence problem. Given less than two hours, they came up with some really interesting ideas showing that (1) you can come up with new ideas quickly if you really want to solve a problem and (2) we need to go beyond talking to the same old people all the time to get fresh thinking. Here is a small selection of simplified renditions of the very detailed ideas people came up with:

• More interaction between the police and the citizens to build confidence and also share practical skills like how to file an FIR.
• Increase in the number of women in official positions across levels: achieve gender balance ratio as part of the recruitment policy; periodic review of recruitment plans and dedicated development and sensitivity programs as part of orientation and on-going training.
• Creating more public spaces
• Improving public health infrastructure including increasing the number of public toilets
• Identifying unsafe areas through citizen consultations and then eliminating them. 

It felt like a fruitful three hours, to us and to the participants, and the best part was that it was also great fun!