Give GIRLS in India a CHANCE at life

Dear Donor,

The project activities during this quarter were conducted at different levels which apart classroom sessions, included Training of Teachers and joining District Task Force for Beti Padhao, Beti Bachao (BBBP).

Engagement with adolescents Ujjwal Tara (11-14) and Roshan Tara(15-18) in schools:

During the reporting period, we conducted classroom sessions with younger adolescents called Ujjwal Tara(11-14 year olds) and older adolescents called Roshan Tara (15-18-year-olds). We covered 4 chapters from Ujjwal Tara curriculum and 4 chapters from the Roshan Tara curriculum. These sessions focus on:

• Building confidence and public speaking skills of the participants.
• Building reflective spaces on qualities and aspiration among adolescent’s girls and boys and recognition of women’s’ role in our lives.
• Building general awareness of students around gender based discrimination and its prevalence.
• Building awareness on gendered segregation.
• Building awareness on rights – its sources and principles- Universality, Indivisibility and Intersectionality.

During the reporting period, we also realised that the awareness about basic gender issues in schools was lower than anticipated. Hence, we also added some more sessions on basic understanding of gender and rights. 

In all the 6 intervention districts- Sonipat, Panipat, Karnal, Rohtak, Jhajjar and Gurugram, our monthly average reach in schools.

Adolescent reach-11-14 age group-8151

Adolescent reach-15-18 age group-11908

Teachers Training at District level:

Teacher training is critical to the programme since it is vital for teachers to look at various issues within the classroom with a gender lens. Only if the teachers are sensitised, will they be able to create a base for students that facilitates gender equitable thinking. 

During this reporting period, we conducted a district-level training in 5 intervention districts Sonipat, Panipat, Karnal, Rohtak and Gurugram with 227 teacher’s participants from 91 schools, including teachers, principals, ex-principals and district and block education officers. Chief Judicial magistrate cum secretary DLSA also joined us in the training. 

Invited by Department of Women and Child Development(WCD) to training Angan Wadi Workers-WDC is the nodal agency for Beti Padhao, Beti Bachao (BBBP) which is the Government of India’s nation-wide initiative to improve the efficiency of welfare services intended for girls in India. WCD was very happy to hear about our work and invite for gender sensitization training of the AWW workers. We conducted 174 AWWs and 14 supervisors from 35 gram panchayats from our intervention blocks-Sohana, Pataudi and Faaruk Nagar.

The training would help at multiple levels a) improve their understanding on gender issues b) identify discriminatory practices in the community c) connection between discriminatory practices and how it leads to lack of access to services for adolescent girls. The session included:

- Innovative Game - Power walk (demonstrating skewed power dynamics based on societal gender construct);

- An Exercise - Unpacking the 5 discriminatory statements from the community that act as barriers and influences behaviour when it comes to equal opportunity for adolescent girls

Invited to Become Member of District Task Force for Beti Padhao, Beti Bachao (BBBP): This platform gave us an opportunity to bring our programme highlights with all the major department at district level including education & health. Through this platform, we then got two more opportunities:

a)      Reference to get permissions for our school intervention in 30 schools for AEP. 

b)      To run the campaign 'Letter to Fathers’ in collaboration with department and district administration in Gurugram. As a part of the campaign Olympian medallist, Sakshi Malik from Haryana’s father wrote a letter stating how a father’s support can go a long way in helping their daughters help realise their aspirations. Copies of this letter have been sent to 100 fathers in 30 villages. The film on the same has also been created and disseminated.

We can't thank YOU enough for your support, please feel free to write to us if you have any query or need any specific information.

Thanks and Regards,

Aman Chhabra.