Support Young People to Lead Social Change

“Why can we not go out of the house alone? Why do we have to give justifications even if we go out for a little while? Why do you trust the community but not your daughters? Are the boys/men who harass us not a part of the community? Why are they not taught better?”

On the 30th of July 2019, 12 young girls living in a low resource neighbourhood in Sunder Nagar Nursery in New Delhi put up a theater performance to engage their parents and other “adults” from their community in a dialogue on the needs and issues of young girls and other adolescents. The process of getting to this performance involved consistent group work, reflection, fights, fun and a lot of conversation. Their key concerns, were the restrictions put on girls, the limited approach to ensuring safety and their aspiration for freedom. 

These girls, along with some of their other friends, have been part of a leadership journey with The YP Foundation since April 2018. At The YP Foundation,  They have learnt creative theatrical communication to present their ideas, issues and problems to their families and community. They have been part of a human library, conducted safety walks, taken up surveys to understand the needs and aspirations of their friends and are finally ready to raise awareness and engage others in these issues on their terms. The process itself made the girls  open up, share their stories and use these to represent the direct and indirect forms of violence they experience. 

The goal of the workshop and engagement was to enable the girls to express and emphasize their needs, stories and issues to their families and communities. Most of the girls felt that they couldn’t bring up certain issues in front of their families because of backlash and judgement. However through the process and the final presentation, they were able to convey their worries and their problems to their families and the community they live in. These stories included cases of harassment, the restrictions they faced on their mobility especially not being able to leave the house alone or at night, as well as issues of mental health and stress. After the presentation, the girls also put questions to their audience and engaged in a lengthy discussion. The supportive reaction of the community and the parents was also heartening and encouraging for the girls.  For some of the parents this was a self realisation moment when they got to know about the particular concern their daughters face.The girls themselves were of the opinion that the process has helped them become less judgemental and more supportive towards their fellow participants as well.

Kareena, Sandhya, Kehkasha and their friends have been able to sensitize their communities and lead this dialogue thanks to supporters like you. As we continue this leadership journey with adolescent girl leaders in Sunder Nagar Nursery, we invite you to join in on social media. Thank you very much for the support and for your continued interest in our work!

Meenakshi is 20 years old and is currently pursuing her Bachelors in Arts from Delhi. She is one of the youth advocates who participated in the capacity of a youth auditor in one of our programmes – The Access Project (TAP) – which assesses youth friendliness of health services in government hospitals and private clinics in Delhi and Varanasi. TAP uses a mystery client approach to assess the youth friendliness and capacitates young people to audit hospitals and counsellors and seek services related to their sexual and reproductive health (SRH).

Her journey began in May 2018 and concluded in February 2019 with TAP and she feels it has brought numerous changes in her life. She now feels more confident to talk about young people's needs, their health, rights, and has helped her destigmatise myths about periods, abortion, sex and gender. The trainings she had attended as part of the programme also helped her enhance her audit skills and to learn in-depth about issues surrounding young people’s SRHR.

She faced several challenges during the audits as she initially found it intimidating to speak to doctors or counselors as she was doing it for the very first time. She felt nervous, confused and afraid of being identified whilst trying to access sexual health services. The environment was also not conducive for young people to access information or services due to the long waiting time at the registration desk to speak to doctors and/or counsellors. In addition this, there was a general lack of information within the hospital departments of where to find information on specific sexual health services.

Public advocacy was the final component of the programme wherein she advocated for services such as contraception and abortion with local level government and health officials. The on ground public advocacy gave Meenakshi the confidence as she found the experience to be very insightful and empowering. At the beginning of the programme, she found it difficult to interact with others and talk about sexual and reproductive rights. However, with time she found that she became more interactive, talkative, confident and found it easy to talk to other people about SRHR. With her engagement as a youth auditor, Meenakshi became self-assured and would like to continue to work on these similar issues in the future.

Your support has been instrumental in building leadership among youth advocates like Meenakshi in order to advocate for their health and rights. Thank you very much for the support and for your continued interest in our work!