Gender Equality India Project #16826

Empowerment of 400,000 Adolescent Girls in India

by Ashish Gram Rachna Trust: Institute of Health Management, Pachod

Project Report | Sep 16, 2024
Empowerment Of 154000 Adolescent Girls In India

By Dr. Ashok Dyalchand | Director

Radhika lives in village Solnapur. She has two younger brothers who are both studying. Her father is a marginal farmer. Both her parents work on their small piece of land. Radhika lives in a joint family, which includes her grandmother, paternal uncle, his wife and three sons.

She studied up to 8^th standard in her village. Since her village has a school only up to 8^th standard, she had to go for further education to a high school in a neighbouring small town, which is about 15 km from her village. She continued schooling up to 10^th standard in this town. She used to commute every day to school by a state transport bus.

She completed Life Skills Education (LSE) conducted by IHMP in her village in 2022, when she was 16 years of age, and in the 10^th standard in school. During her Life Skills Education she learnt about the importance of higher education for girls so that they can become economically independent. She said “During Life skills Education I learnt that if you have self-confidence, you can do anything in life”. She got enthused about studying beyond 10^th standard of schooling.

Her parents were trying to arrange her marriage. She told her parents that she wanted to study further and become economically self sufficient. She told them that she would not like to get married so soon. She requested her Life Skills Education teacher to support her in counselling her parents to allow her to study further and undergo vocational training.

Radhika got 90% marks in her 10^th Board Exams. After that she decided to take admission in the Industrial Training Institute (ITI) for training as an electrician. Working in the electrical field is considered a male bastion, but Radhika had made up her mind that this is the vocation she wanted to pursue.

Radhika said “I could independently complete all the formalities for admission since I learnt during the Life skills education exactly from where to get the necessary documents. So it was easy for me to get my documents needed for admission. I could also open a bank account independently.

In her batch for the electrician’s course at ITI, there were 20 students. She was the only girl in her class. Three students from her Life Skills Education batch got selected for different vocational training courses in Jan. 2024, she is one of them.

Radhika said that this work is very challenging. She said that after completing the LSE course my self-confidence and communication skills have improved and these are helping me during my apprenticeship. She also completed 12^th standard of schooling in 2024, while doing her ITI vocational training course. She has told her parents that she will get married only after she has become self-reliant and her parents have agreed to that.

Radhika said “The Life skills Education provided by IHMP has changed the lives of thousands of girls like me. It resulted in an increase in our confidence. We would communicate more confidently with our parents, teachers and elders. Above all else it opened a new world of information and skills for all of us”.

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May 20, 2024
Empowerment Of 154000 Adolescent Girls In India

By Ashok Dyalchand | Director

Institute of Health Management Pachod (IHMP) has launched an exciting program, wherein adolescent girls trained as Peer Educators are bringing about change in the lives of their 10 to 19 year old peers.

The objective that the peer educators want to achieve is to reduce the prevalence of anemia among adolescent girls, based on the fact that 66% adolescent girls are known to be anemic.

Two adolescent girls trained as Peer Educators visit the houses of 8 adolescent girls selected by them once a week.

During the first visit the peer educators disseminate information about anemia to 8 peers and their parents.

In the second weekly visit the peer educators counsel the 8 girls and their parents and motivate the girls to get their hemoglobin tested by IHMP’s laboratory technicians. Hemoglobin levels will be tested once every 6 months among adolescent girls.

In the third weekly visit the peer educators provide nutrition education to the girls and their parents and motivate them to increase the quantity of food consumed, and to consume iron rich food.

In the fourth weekly visit the peer educators provide iron and folic acid and vitamin C tablets to their 8 peers. They tell the peers to consume the tablets in their presence and they themselves swallow the tablets along with their 8 peers. This strategy of supervised weekly consumption of iron and folic acid supplements is expected to expedite the reduction in the prevalence of anemia as well as prevent the incidence of anemia among adolescent girls in future.

Thereafter, the weekly visits of the peer educators are continued in order to universalize and sustain the behavior changes achieved among the 8 adolescent girls selected by them.

972 adolescent girls in the age group 15 to 19 years have paired up as peer educators. Each pair has adopted 8 adolescent girls 10 to 18 years of age.

The power of this peer led initiative is that two peer educators tell their 8 peers that we ourselves are practicing what we are asking you to follow.

The following outcomes are expected from this initiative:

Measurable change in the nutritional intake by adolescent girls

Measurable improvement of body mass index among adolescent girls

Reduction in the prevalence of anemia among adolescent girls

Reduction of incidence of anemia in future

Anemia results in physical weakness and lack of attention in the short term. In the long term anemia results in hampering the physical and mental growth of adolescent girls, thereby compromising the quality of their lives.

The ‘Peer Led’ program being implemented by 972 girls promises to reverse the adverse consequences of anemia and make this a movement that will change to lives of adolescent girls.

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Jan 22, 2024
Empowerment of 154000 Adolescent Girls in India

By Dr. Dyalchand | Director

Asha is a 21 year old girl who lives in Malevadi village. She belongs to a marginalized family. Her mother has merely 4 years of schooling and her father is educated till 10^th class, in the local school. They both work as agricultural laborers on their own small piece of land. Asha has two sisters and a brother. All three siblings could complete only 12 years of schooling, following which the two sisters got married and stopped working and the brother has a semi skilled job as a mechanic.

Asha is a quintessential example of the impact that Life Skills Education is having on adolescent girls.

She first attended Life Skills Education, of 6 months duration, conducted by Institute of Health Management Pachod, in 2016, when she was 15 years old. She was elected as Peer Leader by the girl’s collective of her village. She attended the sessions regularly, took part in all the projects and activities held by the girls collective of her village. She got so influenced by the course that she kept enrolling four times in subsequent Life Skills Education courses conducted over the next several years.

When Asha was asked what impact Life Skills Education had on her, she said ”I felt much more confident, I learnt how to communicate with ease, I learnt about menstrual hygiene, sexual and reproductive health and how to protect myself from sexual harassment. But above all else I was motivated to continue with my education. I was able to convince my parents not to arrange my marriage till I finish college education and start working.

I am studying in a college located in a neighbouring town to get a Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com) degree. I want to work in a bank after my graduation”.

Asha decided to coach the girls in her village regarding the possibilities of higher education available to them and the advantages of continuing education beyond 12 years of school. Soon she started coaching girls from several neighbouring villages as well. So far she has coached and motivated over 300 girls.

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