By Tina Kapoor | Head of Communications
COVID-19 has changed the world around for each one of us. In India, adolescent girls and women in underserved communities have been most affected by the pandemic. The country recorded a two-fold increase in gender-based violence fuelled by mandatory stay-at-home rules, social distancing, economic uncertainties, and anxieties caused by the pandemic. Adolescent girls were the last and least to be fed and faced the frustration of economic losses and the brunt of the violence. We heard stories of distress, and pain from the communities we work in, but at the same time, we heard stories of resilience and hope from our Girl Icons rising above the challenges to fight in the frontlines in these unprecedented times of humanitarian crisis.
One such story of hope is Girl Icon Jyoti who resides in a rural community of Uttar Pradesh. During the pandemic, Jyoti could not find sanitary pads for herself, Jyoti was not the only one. Schoolgirls in India are facing a massive shortage of sanitary napkins because schools - a critical part of the supply chain - are closed. This has left millions of teenagers across the country anxious. Most girls in the underserved communities, including Jyoti are dependent on the supply from their school because they can't afford to buy sanitary napkins. Jyoti however realized early on in the pandemic that girls and women in her community who were struggling for food would never be able to buy sanitary napkins. Using online research, Jyoti taught herself how to sew cloth pads at home and taught the same to the group of girls she has been leading and educating for two years. Collectively, Jyoti with five girls from her group taught every woman and girl throughout their village to cut, sew and make their own pads at home. In just 4 days, they covered the village population of 900 people. That’s not all Jyoti stitched hundred of masks for free and distributed to the elderly in her community.
This truly shows the impact of creating a cadre of Grassroots girl leaders like Jyoti who are committed and passionate about their communities, they are a force for social transformation. With your support, Jyoti has been trained to lead, educate and empower adolescent girls and young women to overcome the barriers that restrict them to explore their potential. The girls in our program have shown some exceptional progress as compared to the national numbers; 40% of adolescent girls don’t complete their secondary education in India, at Milaan more than 95% of the girls have transitioned into secondary education. Even today in 2020, 1 in 4 girls in India is getting married before the legal age of 18, due to Milaan’s efforts with the girls we work with we have been able to bring that number to almost zero.
In these difficult times we need you more than ever, please continue supporting our girls to ensure they complete their education despite the deepening poverty in their communities and continue to work at the grassroots to achieve gender equality.
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