By Dr Ashok Dyalchand | Founding Director
Vaishali (name changed) is an adolescent girl who lives in one of the villages where Institute of Health Management Pachod (IHMP) implements a programme for the empowerment and protection of adolescent girls.
She lives with her mother, brother and sister. She does not have father as he passed on when she was much younger.
She belongs to a poor family that are categorised as marginal farmers. Her family possesses one and a half acres of non-irrigated, dry land. Her mother and brother work on the land to eke out a meagre amount of food grain for the family, which lasts for only a couple of months.
Since Vaishali belongs to a poor family she has to work hard for continuing her education. To be able to support her education, she works on Sundays and during school holidays on the family farm as a labourer.
Currently she is studying in 10th standard in a school in her village. She has received an award for the best hand writing in her class.
In 2024, Vaishali completed the Life Skills Education (LSE) course, of 6 months duration, that was conducted by IHMP in her village. With tremendous pride, Vaishali says that she received a certificate of participation from IHMP after completing the Life Skills Education course.
Vaishali said “During the Life Skills Education course, I learnt about the disadvantages of child marriage and the importance of education. I learnt about menstrual hygiene and sexual health. I learnt about Good Touch and Bad Touch. All this information received during the LSE course has helped me to gain a lot of self-confidence”.
Her dream is to become an engineer. Vaishali says that she realized the importance of education after completing the Life Skills Education course. She says, this course has given me the confidence that I can become an engineer.
Vaishali says that a girl should study to fulfil her dreams and be self-reliant. She says that she got this inspiration from the street play that was performed by members of the Kishori Mandal (Girl’s Collective) in her village, which highlighted the importance of education for girls.
Vaishali says that she participates in all the activities undertaken by her village Girl’s Collective (Kishori Mandal). I have acquired a lot of confidence after attending the Life Skills Education course. I can stand on the stage and speak Infront of any audience. I also participate in various cultural activities in my school.
Vaishali is one of 433 adolescent girls who received scholarships or educational aids distributed by IHMP in 2026.
More than 2760 girls have completed Life Skills Education over the last 4 years. Since the inception of this programme, IHMPs intervention has touched the lives of over 106,000 adolescent girls resulting in a significant and measurable increase in their self-esteem, self-efficacy. A key impact of this intervention is a delay in the median age at marriage of adolescent girls from 14.5 years to 18 years.
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