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Plan India has initiated a children’s led state level advocacy platform through the formation of Uttarakhand Bal Vidhansabha in 2014 aligned to Plan India’s belief that children are the best advocates to identify and raise their issues themselves before policy and decision makers. Plan India is implementing various community-led programmes that are sustainable due to the deep engagement with the community, especially girls and young women. Uttarakhand Bal Vidhan Sabha is one effective child-led advocacy forum that works to improve the lives and give a voice to over 40 Lakh children from the state.

Uttarakhand State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR), is actively engaged with Bal Vidhansabha, we also receive patronage from the speaker of the State Assembly and support from various ministries & departments of Government of Uttarakhand. Run across 13 districts, many children have applied for membership to the Children’s Assembly since 2014.

Bal Vidhayaks in action

Through this intervention, children learn and become aware of democratic values and are provided with a platform to discuss child rights issues in their areas and explore solutions. The solutions are shared with the state government for further action in the form of resolutions passed during the sessions of the Children’s Assembly.

About 100 such resolutions have been submitted to the state government since inception which have contributed to government actions like strengthening the commitments of the Juvenile Justice Act at district level and development of WASH infrastructure in schools. Bal Vidhan Sabha is the only structured Children’s Assembly of its kind, that promotes equal opportunities and presents an avenue for participation and representation in the democratic process to young girls and boys.

To ensure transparency, open applications are requested through advertisements in newspapers. A thorough process led by a review committee selects 70 members, with almost equal representation of boys and girls. These selected Bal Vidhayaks conducts elections to elect their Chief Minister and other ministers, the leader of the opposition, and a speaker.

Bal Vidhansabha, 2022

This year 286 applications were received for the 4th Bal Vidhansabha. Through a robust selection process led by a Jury, 70 Bal Vidhayaks (37 girls and 33 boys) representing 70 constituencies of Uttarakhand have been elected. These elected Bal Vidhayaks adopted democratic process to elect their Chief Minister & Deputy Child Minister, the leader of the opposition & deputy leader of opposition, a speaker & deputy speaker and other 06 ministers.

In the 1st session of 4th Bal Vidhansabha, more than 20 issues have been raised by Bal Vidhayaks and the department head have answered the questions raised by Bal Vidhayaks.

Key issues discussed in 1st session

• Inability of girls to complete their school education
• Quality of education, child labour
• Low enrolment of girls in math and science subjects at secondary level
• Lack of female teachers in secondary schools
• Reducing number of students in government schools and Anganwadi centers
• Child marriage
• Malnutrition
• Poor and inadequate WASH facilities in schools
• Inadequate sanitary napkins in schools
• Increasing cases of child abuse
• Exploitation and discrimination
• Low immunization
• Health-relatedted counseling
• Weak implementation of child protection programmes and schemes in some districts
• No childline in some districts

The daily lives of the residents of Vikarabad district of Telangana are full of surprises. The land that was drought-prone, over-farmed and nearly barren due to fertiliser and pesticide overuse is now slowly recovering through organic farming. Lively discussions about low-cost, replicable ways to save the environment are overheard at child forums formed at schools, communities and environment protection committees (EPCs) in the communities.

Households tend to kitchen gardens which they passionately advocate for environmental and livelihoods support while others are learning to make seed balls that can fill barren lands with lush greenery again. This is the effect of Plan India’s “Child Friendly Schools in Environmentally Sensitive Communities” project. Run in 40 schools and neighbourhoods with support from Oracle India, the project is a part of Plan India’s effort to prepare communities for climate change. The goal is to create model schools and enable children to become environmentally sensitive while realising their rights to quality education and holistic development.

The first-of-its-kind project in the state, it is in alignment with the government’s ‘Haritha Haram’ programme to raise awareness and greenery in the villages. It interfaces with panchayat, mandal and district level government agencies to strengthen community structures so that they can lead the initiative themselves. The project also raises awareness through behaviour change communication among children, parents, teachers, community members so that they can negotiate with their panchayat and government for secure futures.

Highlights

• 1,215 children (607 girls and 608 boys) from 80 child forums in 40 schools and communities trained
• 40 EPCs with 723 members (460 men and 169 women, 48 boys and 46 girls) strengthened through support and training
• 550 families across 40 communities supported for the development of kitchen gardens

Seeds 4 Life is Plan India’s one-of-its-kind low-cost, sustainable, green approach to improve water quality and address nutritional deficiency using seeds of the Moringa plant. As early as 1979, studies were conducted on the coagulative properties of Moringa Oleifera (drumstick or sahjan) seeds for purifying turbid water. Later, a study in Senegal in 1997–98 to examine the ability of powdered Moringa leaves to prevent and cure malnutrition showed encouraging results in combating anaemia in pregnant and breastfeeding women and increasing infant birth weight.

Plan India generated awareness through community meetings and demonstrations and groomed the youth to scale the pilot to a community-led, sustainable programme. With only one seed needed to treat 1 litre of water, Plan India’s promotion of cultivation of Moringa in kitchen gardens to increase access and lower costs will have far-reaching consequences in improving WASH and nutrition status of communities.

Highlights

• 51 adolescent girls held 85 sessions over 3 months to scale up the pilot
• 150 new drumstick saplings planted

Jharkhand, home to 0.73 crore of India’s 24 crore adolescents aged between 10 and 19, has the third highest rate of child marriages in the country. 38% girls get married before the legal age of 18 years. In 2015, Plan India started ‘Sambhav’, an adolescent empowerment programme with support from UNICEF for reduction in child marriage and teenage pregnancy and increase in secondary education in six blocks of East Singhbhum district by 2019. With equal participation of adolescent girls and boys as their allies in 942 villages, the scale and the gender-transformative impact of Sambhav is unprecedented. Sambhav worked with 47,000 adolescents between 14–18 years by establishing a girls’ and boys’ adolescent group in each village. A youth who showed keen interest and leadership skills in each group was then groomed as a peer educator (PE) and trained in 10 life-skills modules such as decision making, problem solving, financial literacy and child rights. The PEs cascaded these trainings down to their youth groups. Sambhav also worked to fill gaps in forming and strengthening Child Protection Committees (CPCs). Vibrant village and block level CPCs worked in tandem to identify and address child protection issues in their regular meetings. Parents were oriented and mobilised on child rights issues. Intergenerational dialogues were established to spark conversations at panchayat and block-level meetings that were pivotal in giving children the opportunity and support needed to voice their concerns. Anganwadi Workers (AWWs) and Sahiyas were trained on CPC as well as other issues faced by adolescents. Their routine meetings were attended by Sambhav team members to drive AWWs to take on the health and nutritional issues of the adolescents. Sambhav and its youth champions prevented 40 child marriages in 6 months. Coming together of stakeholders has led to self-sustained youth empowerment supported by the larger community. Sambhav is now being merged with Tejaswini, a programme run by the Government of Jharkhand and the World Bank for socioeconomic empowerment of adolescent girls and young women. Tejaswini will be based on Sambhav’s learnings and will provide sustainability and continuity for the young community leaders shaped by Sambhav.

Highlights

• 22,643 adolescents (14,420 girls) reached through 1,614 adolescent groups and 1,878 peer educators trained
• 942 village-level CPCs with 8,241 members, 6 block-level CPCs and 42 parents’ groups established
• 3,562 FLWs, teachers and village-level CPC members trained to support vulnerable children and adolescents

A gradual change is being witnessed in ensuring equal rights and opportunities for girls in the states of Andhra Pradesh (AP) and Telangana state (TS). Governments of AP and TS have taken official cognisance of the burgeoning child rights problem. Work has begun to amend and plug the loopholes in the law that allows child marriages. Religious leaders are spearheading awareness drives about the economic, health and legal repercussions of child marriages within their communities. Village-level Child Protection Committees (CPCs) are being formed and strengthened based on the guidelines created by Plan India in collaboration with the state governments. A strategy paper examining corporate social responsibility spending beyond primary education of girls and identifying the lacunae in support for secondary and higher education which accounts for the highest dropout rates, has been published. All these initiatives are a part of Plan India’s biggest global advocacy programme, Girls’ Advocacy Alliance (GAA). GAA is an initiative of Plan International–Plan Netherlands, Terre des Hommes– Netherlands and Defence for Children–ECPAT Netherlands and funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The project’s goal is to create an environment where girls can build a life of self-reliance, dignity and financial independence. GAA focuses on systemic and attitudinal changes to stop child marriages and child trafficking by promoting secondary education for girls and job oriented vocational training (JOVT) for young women.

Plan India’s innovative strategies for changing social norms, networking, influencing, and gathering evidence are beginning to bear fruit. Youth advocates of GAA are actively raising their voices to demand their rights. Work is in progress with the private sector to promote focused spending and establishing infrastructure to create opportunities for continued secondary education and JOVT for young women. Plan is successfully breaking siloes and creating synergies between the judiciary and the government departments of state legal services, education, and women and child welfare to protect girls’ rights. The project also sensitises other CSOs to incorporate the GAA themes into their core operations and advocacy.

Highlights

• 26,08,393 potential people reached through policy-level changes on Girls Advocacy Alliance focus themes of child marriages, child trafficking, and secondary education.
• 194,13,478 potential girls reached through policy-level changes on Girls Advocacy Alliance focus themes of child marriages, child trafficking, and secondary education.
• 334 religious leaders engaged in ending child marriages.
• Collaboration with 108 Civil Society Organizations for influencing and advocacy actions on gender-based violence and girls education.
• 394 youth advocates empowered to raise voice against gender-based violence and girls education.
• Together with the state government 49,70,198 girls and 36,17,533 boys reached out with messaging on combating child marriages and trafficking as well as on the importance of secondary education and skilling.

Plan India’s Saksham Training Centre at Delhi, Lucknow, Dehradun, Jaipur, Mumbai and Bengaluru are full of young men and women taking avid notes as a trainer talks to them about workplace communication. In another section, youngsters launch into a role play that sensitises them on gender-relations in their personal spaces, within their communities and at the workplace. In yet another corner, girls engage in a lively debate about which strategies are best to convince their families to let them work, an opportunity often denied by the girls’ protective environment.

Started in 2010, Saksham focuses on ‘Neither in Education, Employment or Training (NEET)’ youth, especially girls, from urban and rural disadvantaged areas. The initiative arms them with free, market-oriented vocational skills, as well as job and entrepreneurial training. With support from corporates and Plan International offices, Plan India’s mission is to provide access to gainful employment to young girls in the age group of 18-29 years while also grooming today’s youth as representatives of a gender-just society. The programme also goes several steps further and includes basic IT skills, presentation, etiquette and basic business conversational skills in the training. Saksham has a strong focus on training that challenges gender stereotypes and widespread discrimination. Saksham engages parents, communities and employers on the subjects of gender equality, equal opportunities and economic empowerment of girls and women. The programme not only encourages young girls and women to take up skill training but also provides linkages to employment for mainstreaming their participation in socio-economic development.

Saksham was carefully designed after gathering market intelligence, researching available jobs and identifying the skill gap. Initial market studies identified potential trades for vocational training. Local employers in these sectors were then interviewed to gather skill requirements and gaps, which formed the basis of the training courses. Creating awareness among young people about job opportunities in the market, providing career counselling and imparting skills to negotiate with families, communities and employers were also designed into the course.

Plan India takes the training right into the communities to address the challenges raised by limited mobility for girls. Working in close association with their training and implementation partners, Plan India leverages the trust they have built over the years with communities to lower resistance to the idea of girls seeking employment and bring about social behavioural change from within the communities.

Saksham provides experiential learning before placing its young graduates into job openings and mentors them through the first six months to ensure that there are no dropouts. The programme also focuses on gender mainstreaming by taking care of particulars like evaluating the safety of the location and timings of not just their own training centres, but also of the places of employment of the young girls.

The success of Saksham lies in creating an informed and empowered youth force that seeks to create an equitable, economically secure and sustainable future for themselves and their families. Girls who graduate from Saksham leave with skills for not just gainful employment, but with an ability to make decisions and negotiate their rights with peers, parents and employers. The hard work of the Saksham team is validated by the strong and constant demand for Saksham-trained young women from local employers.

Highlights

• 6000+ youths were provided job-oriented vocational and entrepreneurship training.
• 60% of trained young people were girls.
• 70% of the trained youth were placed in jobs including self-employment, of which 60% were girls.
• Over 80% of the trained young people joined higher/next-level education post-training.
• 3000+ young people were supported with career counselling.

Plan India is committed to engaging children and young people in programming as part of its Child Centred Community Development (CCCD) approach. In India, children and youth participation in programmes is fostered within children and youth groups through routine meetings with local Community Based Organisations and duty bearers, and active representation in influencing initiatives at the village, block, district, state and national levels.

In alignment with the Global Youth Engagement Strategy and guidelines, Plan India established the National Youth Advisory Panel (NYAP) in June 2015 through a democratic process wherein the youth elected national representatives from each state. A total of 24 Youth Advisory Panel (YAP) representatives (12 boys and 12 girls) were elected from nine states.

Plan India proposed three key initiatives to strengthen YAPs at the national level in order to engage them in its programmes, influencing initiatives and involving them in internal decision making processes.

• Empowering NYAP members to engage in Plan India programmes and hone and promote their leadership skills and abilities
• Ensure availability of a democratic space for collective action by supporting them to form YAPs at the state level, led by NYAP representatives
• Create an enabling environment for youth to raise their voices and make their concerns, views and ideas heard within Plan India’s governing mechanism, as well as in their influencing initiatives viz. national conferences, dialogues and events on key issues at various levels

Key Activities

Difficult Dialogues 2016:

NYAP members were involved in the Difficult Dialogues 2016 conference where they performed a play on child marriage and raised questions to the expert panellists and thought leaders.

Difficult Dialogues 2017:

The 2017 conference focused on young health issues. YAP members along with other youth groups took part in the conference in which key policy makers, health professionals and corporates also participated, raising questions related to health issues and the state of (youth-friendly) health services in the country.

National Conference on Plan for Every Child:

NYAP representatives participated in the conference in the capacity of a media group, “Nai Awaaz” (New Voice), auditing all panel discussions and presenting their consolidated thoughts to all attendees on the last day of the conference in the form of a newsletter and PowerPoint presentation.

International Day of the Girl Child:

YAP members participated in the “Girls Takeover” campaign in three states. On October 11, 2016, 120 youth members (girls and boys) manned central traffic intersections in Delhi for two hours assisted by Delhi Traffic Police personnel, most of whom were women.

Youth-led initiatives:

In Bihar, state level YAP members designed a campaign to increase community awareness and end child marriage in five locations. This helped influence local governance and Community Based Organisations who were mobilised to take a pledge on ending child marriage in their communities.

Dialogue with State Ministers (Bihar):

In Bihar, children and state level YAP representatives organised a campaign on ending child marriage in Patna. During a key event, the youth disseminated a pictorial book they had developed highlighting the issue of child marriage. Children and youth along with members of the District Child Welfare Committee, Juvenile Justice Board and District Child Protection Unit pledged to end child marriage in their home state through a signature campaign. Hon’ble Ministers of the Government of Bihar, Youth Affairs and Culture, Mr Shivchandra Ram and Mr Alok Mehta participated and lauded the efforts of Plan India YAP initiatives on ending child marriage in Bihar.

Youth-led research and study:

The Uttarakhand state level YAP conducted a study on drug abuse in their state and submitted their findings to the state government while organising a Bal Vidhan Sabha (Children and Young people Assembly at State level) and review of YAP.

Youth engagement in Plan India Impact Awards:

State and national level YAP members were involved in specific nomination committees at multiple levels and led the nomination validation process through social audits. They also represented the youth in the sub-jury committee at state level as well as the national jury to select the final award winners. One YAP member from Uttar Pradesh received the Youth Recognition Award.

Several studies in India have revealed that lack of basic amenities like toilets, access to water and basic infrastructure creates an unwelcoming and non-conducive environment in government schools. This leads to a high rate of absenteeism which results in children dropping out of school. In this situation, girls are often the most affected.

Plan India is a strategic partner of Coca-Cola NDTV Support My School campaign, which was launched to work on revitalisation of schools. The campaign that began with Coca-Cola, NDTV and UN-Habitat, has now grown to include many partners. The approach adopted was to work on sanitation plus a model involving NGOs, community members and the private sector. So in addition to new or revitalised structures, access to water was made an important component. In all, five components, depending on the school, were revitalised:

• Access to sanitation
• Access to water
• Playing facilities
• Environmental upkeep and rainwater harvesting (based on need)
• Partner led intervention

Support My School is one of the biggest campaign of its kind in India. Through active engagement and leveraging various channels and through clutter breaking live television telethons, the campaign has reached out to millions across India, making them aware of these issues and how they can be solved together. The campaign is being implemented in 8 states, i.e. Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Bihar and Odisha.

Tackling gender inequality and exclusion

While the Government of India education policies work well to have children enrolled in schools, the issue needing most attention is retention of young adults in schools. One of the widely recognised reasons for children dropping out of schools is the lack of basic, age-appropriate, gender-and disability-friendly sanitation facilities, clean drinking water and a healthy school environment. Since hardware is prone to wear and tear, its maintenance was budgeted to make sure that children neither cleaned nor paid for cleaning. Even though children are trained on clean usage of toilets, the general upkeep is assigned to a cleaning vendor. The budgetary provision included cleaning materials to ensure dignity of labour.

Strengthening Plan’s accountability

Children, teachers and SMC members were involved during the assessment and planning phase for each of the schools. Before initiating the project activities, the list of items and processes were shared with the teachers and SMCs for the monitoring process. Orientation on child protection guidelines during the construction/renovation phase were shared with the key stakeholders. The contracts signed with the construction vendors ensured that no pregnant women and children below 18 years of age were employed in physical labour.

Plan India as Principal Recipient (PR) of Global Fund is implementing the Ahana project since 2015 to increase the uptake of Prevention of Parent to Child Transmission (PPTCT) services and Elimination of Mother to Child Transmission (EMTCT) of HIV and Syphilis. The project is aligned with the national mandate of EMTCT and SDG target 3.3 of ending AIDS epidemics by 2030.

The specific goal is to facilitate periphery level HIV screening among pregnant women as part of antenatal care for early identification of HIV-positive pregnant women and linking them with PPTCT services to reduce the chances of transmission from parent to child.

The Project is being implemented in 307 districts of 13 states (Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura in North East and Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh) as per national guidelines of AIDS Control Programme in collaboration with State AIDS Control Societies and State Health Department.

The field-level activities under the project are being implemented by Networks of HIV Positive People like the National Coalition of People Living with HIV in NE states and Uttar Pradesh Network of Positive People and Civil Society organizations including Child in Need Institute and Hindustan Latex Family Planning Promotion Trust.

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS

• 10 Million Pregnant women received HIV testing.
• 3,870 HIV-positive pregnant women have undergone institutional delivery.
• 3,572 HEI received Early Infant Diagnosis testing within 2 months.
• 4,832 HIV-positive pregnant women linked to HIV treatment.
• 3,673 Spouses/partners of HIV-positive pregnant women received HIV testing.
• 3,519 Private hospitals engaged with the project providing HIV testing services to pregnant women.

To know more about Ahana’s response to COVID-19 click here.

Balika Shivir was set up by Plan India and its NGO partner Urmul Setu in 1998 to address the problem of girls’ education and child marriage in the state of Rajasthan.

The Shivirs (residential camps for girls aged 6-18 years) and Kishori Prerna Manch (KPM) (for adolescent girls) impart vital education skills like life skills, literacy and vocational training to girls who do not have the opportunity to attend regular school. A significant change in the attitude of girls and their families has been witnessed over the years. Impressively, now these girls are not only pursuing their dreams but are also giving back to their communities through their involvement in KPM, Famine Relief Programme and as advocates of education and change.