Improving sexual and reproductive health and rights in India Providing a replicable, low-cost model of youth-friendly information and services to improve adolescent SRHR outcomes in India Authors: A Nic Charthaigh, R Goldberger (Interact Worldwide) & R Harvey (Plan UK) The issue: Addressing a lack of focus on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) in India, particularly for young men and women. Turning national government commitments into action at a local level and ensuring accountability to young people and their communities. The project: “Promoting Rights-based Action to Improve Youth & Adolescent Sexual & Reproductive Health & HIV/ AIDS in India” or “PRAYASH” for short is a five year project run in West Bengal and Jharkhand by Child In Need Institute India (CINI) and other partners, with technical support from Interact Worldwide and financial assistance from the EU. How it works: Taking a holistic approach, the project developed integrated community based programmes, with a strong emphasis on promoting adoption and scale up by State Governments under youth ‘Plans of Action’. Providing space for the participation of vulnerable young people, parents, community and religious leaders, the project aims to improve quality of and access to youth friendly SRHR services, as well as to increase knowledge, life skills and awareness of SRHR, HIV and AIDS and gender amongst vulnerable young women and men. What it means: of service providers and partner Civil Society Organisations through training and information sharing Scale up will enable the project to reach over 10 million young people and 3,600 service providers. In addition, advocacy efforts have led to significant improvements in young people’s access to appropriate services - 67% of young people surveyed reported feeling more comfortable attending services. » CINI developed a training toolkit on adolescent Meetings with the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs and the Department for Women and Children have led to a commitment to scale up in 12 districts of Jharkhand and West Bengal. departmental priorities at local and national levels » Scaling up involves working with and integrating 1. T he value of direct involvement of boys and into government structures while preventing dilution of activities and services. Following a scalability assessment, and taking into consideration various Government Departments’ Youth Initiatives, CINI developed a strong advocacy plan with the state at community, block, district and state levels. girls in combined peer education and advocacy »1,600 peer educators have been trained to » » co-facilitate SRHR and life skills education programmes in secondary schools. The most passionate have been offered additional training to act as agents of change in their community and carry out advocacy with local level elected officials. Almost 3,000 sensitisation meetings with 27,000 community stakeholders have been held to discuss issues and scrutinize progress reports and plans. Attendees have included community government representatives, block level officials, teachers, parents and village health committee members. So far, around 5,000 young people have taken part in two youth conventions involving media and local authorities. 2. The value of involving parents & communities » Youth Adult Committees provide space for discussion between parents, project staff and young people on the content of training and activities. This has helped to assuage parents’ fears and ensure they do not withdraw their children, particularly girls, from the project. 22,000 people attended over 100 health fairs with national and local government representatives so far. Offering health check ups, counselling services, nutrition camps and cultural and competitive activities, these health fairs seek to sensitise community members on SRH issues and to increase respect for young people, particularly girls. Interact Worldwide joined global children’s charity Plan UK as a sister organisation in 2009. » SRHR, gender and rights for use with service providers and peer educators. Service providers were supported to make services youth friendly and to act as trainers during scaling up in the twelve districts. Twelve Self Help Groups have received training on HIV, early marriage, early pregnancy, contraception, abortion and other issues. 4.The need for sensitivity to government and What we’ve learned: » plan+interact.repro.indd 1 3. The benefits of strengthening the capacity “The amount of respect and love that I now receive from my fellow community members is heartening. Being involved in this entire process has helped me gain a vision and a new perspective towards life. Earlier I never thought of pursuing a career but now I do. I don’t want to merely get married and have children, I want to work. Despite initial opposition, my parents now support me.” Rufida, PRAYASH Youth Leader Plan UK is learning from this model to inform programmes and advocacy as part of their Because I Am a Girl campaign. Interact Worldwide registered charity number: 1001698 Plan International UK registered charity number 276035 20/05/2011 13:42