By Aman Chhabra | Project Leader
Dear Donor,
Breakthrough’s Adolescent Empowerment Programme (AEP) in Hazaribagh district, Jharkhand is largely modelled to promote sexual and reproductive health rights of adolescent girls and gender equitable norms from the early stages of life over.
We focused on conducting our baseline evaluation to gather necessary insights that guided our programme implementation. Our key accomplishments during this reporting period were:
A number of the adolescents are engaged in work while studying, as are the two percent of participants who are not studying. While 83% of the girls reported that they work, 70% of boys reported the same. Almost all girls are engaged in unpaid chores as compared to about 25% of boys in the older cohort who do paid work.
The findings related to GBD (Gender Based Discrimination) show both similarities and differences in girls’ and boys’ perspectives towards gender roles. The majority of girls and boys agreed that they are equal but almost half of boys believe they should be given food that is more nutritious while almost all girls disagree with this. Both girls and boys appear to support girls’ education although the support is higher among girls themselves. While even more girls than boys endorse the statement that girls are supposed to do all household chores, about half of the girls believe that boys should also be involved in domestic chores. There is overall agreement from both girls and boys that girls should not talk to boys. More boys than girls believe that it is unsafe for girls to go out alone and they should not have access to mobile phones. Girls’ responses to statements on GBD seem to hold a greater challenge to traditional norms than do boys’ responses in spite of some strong overlaps in the views of both girls and boys.
The majority of adolescents have experienced violence. Most boys report being hit the most, while girls report equal amounts of physical and verbal violence. Girls reported violence on their school commute and while going out of the village, which boys did not. Almost no study participants have complained against violence and perpetrators of violence against who complaints are registered rarely face any punishment.
Most community members expressed the view that there is no GBD although not much evidence was offered. The majority of participants have not heard of gender-related modules although they expressed some support for their introduction but to be conducted in separate groups of girls and boys. Most community members expressed views, which strongly supported GBD.
The key findings indicate that there are strongly entrenched traditional views of gender norms. Girls’ views appear to challenge these to the greatest extent, followed by boys, while their parents appear to be most aligned with traditional views. This, combined with poverty, mentioned as a reason for early marriages, presents a significant challenge to changing traditional views of GBD and gender norms, thereby presenting an important opportunity for the implementation of AEP in the study area.
The baseline findings then helped us finalise the project implementation design and strategy. Based on this, we then conducted activities like classroom sessions, training of older adolescents, youth, and meetings with other community stakeholders. The details of progress on these activities in the project are as follows:
1)Training of Breakthrough Trainers (ToT): Before the on-ground training commenced, we trained our trainers or community developers (CDs) to ensure the quality of training is maintained. The ToT covered the first six chapters of the curriculum created for adolescents known as Taron ki Toli. Based on this training, the trainers are now conducting sessions with adolescents in schools and communities.
2)School-based trainings with Younger Adolescent Girls & Boys (11-14year-olds known as Ujjwal Taras): The school based trainings shape the gender attitudes and beliefs of young adolescents t0 help them question social norms that contribute to girls being out of school; encourage them to be aware of their rights to negotiate for decisions concerning them like education and marriage.
During the reporting period, we covered four lessons, reaching out to 1623 adolescent girls and boys (Girls 847 and boys 776) in 17 schools of 10 Gram Panchayats of four blocks in Hazaribagh district. The chapters covered were: 1. Jaan Pahchan Ho – it talks about how peer support can help them face different challenges, 2. Sabke Saamne – it provides an opportunity for adolescents to reflect and understand their strengths and share them with their peers; 3. Aaj Ki Taza Khabar – it trains adolescents in public speaking that will help them put forward their ideas in the communities; and 4. Aaj Main Upar – it helps adolescents identify their qualities and talk to others about own aspirations. The project has helped the adolescents to identified themselves & be collectivized as ‘Gangs of Stars’ (Taron Ki Toli) in their respective schools. One of the adolescent girls who attended the sessions shared that, “The lessons learnt through games in the Ujjwal Tara session helped us in getting to know each other and improved our self-confidence to speak in front of others.” We are hoping as the sessions progress, many more change stories will emerge from these groups.
3)Training Older Girls (Peer Educators; 15-18year-olds known as Roshan Taras): The trainings with adolescent girls aims to generate positive dialogue about relationships, sex and sexuality, and demystify the complex and volatile connections between public and private spheres. To begin the trainings, the project team formed 34 groups (Kishori Mandals) in 20 revenue villages in 10-gram panchayats of Hazaribagh district. So far 766 adolescents out of the proposed 1000 (details of challenges faced in collectivising adolescents is mentioned in section 3) are a part of these community based adolescent groups. The project team has conducted two chapters as per the ‘Roshan Tara’ training modules covering: 1. Swasthaya Aur Poshan (Health and Nutrition) – as an introductory session, it helps adolescent girls to form groups by signing consent forms to be a part of the group and helps them understand health & nutrition in local context; 2. Swasth Ya Past (Healthy-unhealthy) – It helps adolescents to understand & identify what a healthy or unhealthy person is like. This was the first time many adolescents got a dedicated space to learn and share their ideas about health and their rights. One of the adolescent girls shared that, “This was the first time we got the chance to learn about what a healthy and unhealthy person is like and got a platform to share our thoughts and ideas.” It was very encouraging to see that many girls understood the importance of these discussions. Anjali (name changed), a member of the Kishori Mandal group said,”We were very happy to get the chance to learn not only about health and nutrition, but also our rights. Understanding our rights was very critical for us.”
4)Trainings with 19+ year-old Youths: According to the youth engagement strategy, the focus during the reporting period was to identify & collectivize the youth in intervention areas by sensitising them on the gender roles so that they can act like social change-actors / catalysts who mobilise other community members in their respective communities. The project team has conducted orientation with 166 youth in 15 revenue villages. 15 youth groups have been formed in these 15 villages. In the days to come, these youth group members will be connected to the revenue village level convergence groups in their respective revenue villages.
5)Social Mapping in Chanoul, Barkagaon, Hazaribagh: This year, as a part of our community engagement strategy, we introduced a new component called Social Mapping. Social Mapping helps build community ownership and helps community members identify and understand social issues from the perspective of adolescents. During the reporting period, the first community convergence group meeting was done through a social mapping exercise at the revenue village level with community stakeholders and older adolescent girls. Mr. Joshy Jose (Sr. Director – Knowledge Strategies and Planning) conducted a social mapping workshop for the district team in Chanoul village of Barkagaon block. Over 100 people participated in the social mapping activities. The project team invited & mobilize the community stakeholders & adolescents to a centrally located venue in the revenue village for the social mapping activity. The district team and community people together created the map of the village, marking all streets, roads, resources, houses, school, AWC, VHND, etc in the village. Once the map was completed, the adolescent girls & boys helped in marking houses where adolescent girls live. This created a social picture of the village such as where SC/ST, upper caste population live and where various resources are available in the village. Based on this knowledge, we can now propose community interventions and identify a common space for community mobilization events where all caste / class – all gender people will come to attend. Now the project team will conduct in remaining villages that will be reported in the next reporting cycle.
6)Identification of Community Members for Community Based Convergence Groups: As per our experience of working to transform social norms in the communities, while one has to work with adolescents to bring a shift in norms, it is equally important to work with the community stakeholders around them to create a conducive environment. We are focusing on improving community ownership on the issue. Through the social mapping exercise, we were able to identify convergence group members in one village. In the next reporting period, we will be forming convergence groups in the remaining villages. Convergence meetings will bring together all community stakeholders (PRIs, AWWs, Sahiya, Asha, Men Group, SHGs, etc.) to take ownership of the issues relevant to them and take action. As per the design, in convergence meetings, project stakeholders will identify key action points for adolescent empowerment and they will take action to address the issue in their respective revenue village.
This all work we have been able to do is because of the support and contribution from donors like YOU. Let's come together in 2020 also and give a brighter, safer and a happier childhood to these kids.
Please feel free to write to us if you have any query or concern.
Thanks and Regards,
Aman Chhabra.
By Aman Chhabra | Project Leader
By Aman Chhabra | Project Leader
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