Empowerment of Adolescent Girls through NGO Intervention

By – Dr. Ruby Ojha1

1. Rationale
“Adolescence is often the time when the world expands for boys and contracts
for girls. Boys enjoy new privileges reserved for men; girls endure new
restrictions reserved for women. Boys gain autonomy, mobility, opportunity and
power; girls are systematically deprived of these assets.”2 It is a concept
encompassing physical and emotional stages of transition from childhood to
adulthood. During this period, attitudes, beliefs and values tend to settle in to a
pattern, out of which emerge the shape and direction of one's life-style.
Adolescence is a transitional phase of life when multiple, rapid, and profound
changes take place in body, mind and emotions of an individual. Experimentation
with alcohol, tobacco and other drugs, exploration of sexuality, unwanted
pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, loss of interest in school, conflict with
peers and parents can influence the course of an adolescent's life and can have
a long-term impact. This is a critical time in life because the experiences,
knowledge and skills acquired in adolescence have important implications for an
individual’s prospects in adulthood.

Gender discrimination in this stage of life deprives women of the mainstream

development initiatives. Illiteracy and lack of employment opportunities limit their
options in life and they suffer due to their dependence on others. Moreover,
millions of out-of-school adolescent girls, with little or no education and limited
skills, become the victims of the poverty trap, facing exploitation, deprivation,
discrimination and trafficking.

Adolescent girls comprise about one-fourth of India’s population majority of which

is out of school and is caught in the cycle of early marriage, repeated pregnancy

1
Reader, Department of Economics, PGSR, SNDT Women’s University, Mumbai - 400020
2
B.S. Mensch, J. Bruce, and M.E.Greene, The Uncharted Passage: Girls’ Adolescence in the
Developing World, Population Council, New York,1998

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and poverty. It denies their access to opportunities for future and hurts the
chances young women should have to improve their lives, their health,
educational attainment, employment opportunities and decision making in the
family and in the community.

Adolescence is a time of increased vulnerability and potential risk and therefore,

also constitutes special opportunities for preventive interventions. Such
interventions are also required for exploring the ways towards basic learning
needs of adolescents and youth. It is also widely acknowledged that investment
in women yields high social returns from which the children benefit the most.
Targeting this group through holistic programmes aimed at their empowerment
also offers a unique opportunity to make a long-term, sustainable contribution to
poverty eradication. While suppressed, marginalized and exploited, adolescent
girls represent an immense untapped potential for social, political and economic
transformation. Enabling them to take greater control over their own lives will
contribute to building human capital for change and will not only enable
adolescent girls to shape their own livelihood but also to contribute in the
development efforts of their communities. Girls need support and encouragement
to be able to define and set their goals and work towards achieving the same.

2. Problems faced by adolescent girls

Women face discrimination at every stage in their lives. Right from their birth till
death, she is viewed as a dependant, with no decision making powers in matters
concerning her life. If not killed in the womb, the girl child struggles to survive in
an environment of discrimination which takes away from her all opportunities for
growth and development. Within the family due to gender discrimination, girls
receive less health care and education, nutrition and fewer opportunities for
employment than boys. This discrimination against the girl child is heightened in
adolescence.

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Early marriage very often cuts short the hopes, aspirations and dreams of
adolescent girls. Girls are led to believe that marriage is a play of destiny, beyond
the control of individuals. This belief leads to girls and women being submissive
to various situations of conflict in their marriage and not challenging or
questioning the same. In some developing countries about 40 per cent of girls
marry by the age of 18, often without their consent.

Girl children take up the role of home-makers. Physical, emotional, verbal and
sexual abuse is a part of their everyday reality. No control over their body, no
space to voice opinions and no opportunity to exercise their decision making
powers, reinforces the secondary status of the woman.

Adolescent girls’ enrolment in school often declines sharply due to the need
for their help in the home and the costs of education. Parents often restrict their
movements out of fears for their reputation and safety.

Millions of adolescent girls, both married and unmarried face domestic violence,
rape, sexual and dowry-related abuse and exploitation, and forced
prostitution. Half of all victims of sexual abuse are under the age of 15.

Girls drop out of school because of a lack of female teachers, distance of

schools from their homes, parental fear for their daughter’s safety, and failure on
exams.

For young girls, nutritional deprivation, increased iron demand for adolescent
growth, excessive menstrual losses of iron and early/frequent pregnancies
aggravate and exacerbate pre-existing anemia and its effects. Most girls are not
adequately aware of their increased nutritional needs for growth, resulting in girls
that are underweight and of short stature. Clinical examination has always been,
and remains an important practical method for assessing the nutritional status of
a community. Nutritional anemia has been considered as an important problem in

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adolescent girls. The poor nutritional status of these adolescent mothers
heightens risk during pregnancy and childbirth, contributes to maternal mortality,
and puts their infants at risk.

3. Rights of adolescents
On realizing that their dreams and their rights are being violated some women
raise their voices against the same and struggle to hold on to their rights. But this
struggle following the realization can come only if women are aware about their
rights and when they know how to safeguard, uphold and protect their rights.

Adolescent girls have autonomous right to childhood, and thus they are entitled
to be protected, defended, helped and taken care of by their families, by their
parents and guardians, by the communities they live in, by their teachers, and by
the states. The development needs of adolescents span a whole spectrum of
rights from accessing basic education to adolescent friendly health services,
responding to their special needs for acquiring life-skills and livelihoods in a safe
and enabling environment. Meaningful participation by adolescents and equal
opportunities provided to both boys and girls is a fundamental pre-requisite for
fulfilling the development rights of the adolescents.

Basic education: Education is the key aspect for the empowerment of

adolescent girls. It raises income, promotes health and increases productivity.
Education is a powerful vehicle for ensuring girls' and women's equal access to
knowledge, skills, jobs and participation in society. The reality of adolescents in
many countries show that they are often deprived of access to formal schooling.
In most cases they are engaged in work.

Adolescent friendly health services: Existing health services in most countries

are not geared to meeting the special needs of adolescents. On average, most
adolescent girls have little knowledge of menstruation, sexuality and
reproduction. From the beginning of their lives, girls are socialized to accept male
domination and ignore their own needs.

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Access to life-skills and livelihoods: Life-skills enable young people to acquire
the knowledge, attitudes and skills necessary to manage their own lives with
confidence and competence and make informed choices. Livelihood or
vocational skills enable young people to achieve economic self-reliance and
pursue future career options.

Enabling environment: Adolescent girls have right to be provided with an

environment where community, society and families understand and address the
special needs of the adolescents and provide them with an environment free
from violence, abuse, exploitation and discrimination.

Participation: To change the traditional mind-sets in society regarding young

people and adolescents by ensuring that they are consulted on matters
concerning their own lives and enabling them to contribute to the well-being of
the society.

These rights have been set and protected by

• the Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted by the United Nations
General Assembly in 1989
• the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1979
• the Programme of Action adopted at the International Conference on
Population and Development (ICPD) in 1994 and in the key outcome
document issued at ICPD+5 in 1999
• the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, adopted at the Fourth
World Conference on Women in 1995, and the Political Declaration and
outcome document from Beijing+5 in 2000.
The above mentioned conventions, programmes and declarations define the
adolescent’s rights as:
• survival and personal development, including health care, education, life
and livelihood skills and vocational training,

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 • the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
• protection against violence, discrimination and exploitation
• Participation in matters that affect their lives and freely express their
viewpoints.
Respecting these rights will enable all adolescents to grow and develop to their
full potential. The existing gender bias that skews societies and entrenches
inequalities and poverty can be ended, giving girls the freedom to be active and
equal partners in development.

4. Framework for Action

A number of issues affecting adolescents are central to the MDGs. These are -
completion of primary schooling, elimination of gender disparity in primary and
secondary education, halting the spread of HIV/AIDS, reducing the maternal
mortality ratio, and implementing strategies for decent and productive work for
youth.

The initiative entitled ‘Meeting the Development and Participation Rights of

Adolescent Girls’ puts ‘adolescence’ at the forefront of the development agenda
of the three implementing UN organizations. This is a groundbreaking global pilot
initiative funded by the United Nations Foundation (UNF). In accordance with the
Secretary-General’s reform effort, UNF supports the goals of the United Nations
and contributes resources and support to a number of development efforts. With
this initiative, UNF has gathered together a range of partners to help realize the
rights of adolescent girls and boys. Implementing partners are the United Nations
Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the
World Health Organization (WHO). The Population Council, the Commonwealth
Youth Programme, the International Centre for Research on Women, and Family
Care International are complementing the endeavour by sharing their expertise in
reaching out to adolescents. The project is under way in 12 countries. The
activities vary from country to country, depending on local needs. Many countries
expanded the programme to include adolescent boys as well as girls.

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 5. NGO Intervention: The Adolescent Girls' Project
The Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA) has been
implementing the pioneering Better Life Options Program (BLP) for adolescents
in India through its partner organizations since 1989. The program uses an
empowerment model that offers adolescent girls a combination of life skills,
literacy and vocational training support to enter and stay in formal school, family
life education, and leadership training. A unique feature of the program is its
holistic approach integrating education, livelihoods and reproductive health. The
focus of this Project is on the marginalized adolescent girls living in depressed
rural areas. This Project seeks to enhance the freedom and capabilities of
adolescent girls, with a broad-based programme of activities designed to enable
them to improve the quality of their lives, enhance their dignity as individuals and
work their way out of poverty. The study found significant differences between
the untrained adolescents and Better Life Options Program (BLP) alumnae in
terms of education, vocational skills, economic empowerment, autonomy and
mobility, self-confidence, reproductive health and child survival behavior, and
health seeking. BLP alumnae were significantly more likely to be literate, to have
completed secondary education, to be employed and to have learned a
vocational skill. More BLP girls traveled outside their village and went to a health
center alone in the last six months. In addition, BLP alumnae were more likely to
make autonomous decisions about going to the market, spending what they
earned and deciding when to marry.

Age of Marriage
One effective strategy for improving maternal health and reducing the family size
is increasing the age at marriage of girls. A significantly higher percentage of
BLP alumnae married after the legal age of marriage, 18 years, compared to the
control group. At the time of marriage, one indicator of empowerment is whether
the girl has any say in the selection of her husband. A significantly higher

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proportion of girls in the BLP group had a say in the selection of their husbands
than in the control group

Education Attainment
Completion of secondary school among BLP alumnae was found to be highly
significant as compared to the control group (66% versus 46%). The proportion
of dropouts from school was significantly higher in BLP compared to the controls,
but among those who were school dropouts, 3% of the BLP alumnae re-enrolled.
This indicates a need for the program to strengthen its efforts at ensuring that
girls either stay in school or re-enroll in school.

Livelihoods: Vocational Skills and Economic Empowerment

Ninety-nine percent of the BLP alumnae had learned a vocational skill compared
to 22% in the controls. A majority learned tailoring followed by training for
beauticians, printing, handicrafts, and Henna design application. All indicators for
economic empowerment were found to be highly significant for BLP alumnae in
comparison to controls including holding a savings account, and having
autonomy on how to spend money one earned.

Empowerment: Self-Esteem, Decision-Making and Mobility

Very highly significant differences emerged in the areas indicating socio-
emotional empowerment between BLP and controls. Selected indicators of self-
esteem revealed that many more BLP girls had less difficulty in talking in front of
elders in the family or a group, could express their ideas or convince others of
their viewpoint, and found it easier to make friends. A significantly higher
proportion of BLP girls were empowered to make their decisions on their own or
jointly with others in matters of education, age of marriage, vocational training,
health care and day-to-day matters, such as what food should be cooked or
items purchased. Another indicator of empowerment for girls in India is mobility
as it is markedly restricted especially after puberty. The mobility of BLP alumnae
is also significantly higher: BLP alumnae are twice as likely to use public

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transport and to go alone to the market. Fewer BLP girls needed permission to
visit the market or friends/relatives.
Perceptions Regarding Gender-Based Roles
BLP girls appear to be more empowered with knowledge regarding gender equity
than the controls. They also believed less in the gender-based division of labour
and stated that men should help in the household work and women should work
outside the home. More BLP girls feel that a woman should initiate discussions
with her husband regarding the number of children they should have, that
infertility is not usually the woman’s fault and believe that educating girls is as
important as educating boys.

Reproductive Health and Child Survival Behavior (Married Respondents

Only) Contraceptive Use:
An important finding was that more than twice as many BLP girls compared to
controls had discussed family planning recently, primarily with their husband or
friends.

HIV/AIDS Awareness
The awareness of HIV/AIDS was analyzed separately for married and unmarried
girls. Whether married or unmarried, significantly more BLP alumnae were aware
of HIV/AIDS and the ways of preventing AIDS compared to the controls.

The picture emerging from analysis is that the Better Life Options Program has
had a significant impact on the empowerment of girls in several important areas
and also on some indicators of reproductive and child health.

6. Conclusion and Recommendations

1. The first step towards the creation of an enabling environment for

empowering adolescent girls is to recognize their specific needs and
situation.

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2. Resources need to be mobilized and secured to carry out in-depth
assessments of the status of adolescent girls, and to develop a data bank
of statistics and data disaggregated by age and by sex. Visibility of
adolescent girls needs to be increased.

3. A society must work collectively to ensure that the potential of adolescent

girls is fully exploited, and such efforts need to be supported and
assured by States.

4. Public information campaigns can be organized with the media taking a

leading role in order to eliminate negative cultural attitudes and practices
against girls and to achieve gender equality within the society.

5. Governments, in coordination with NGOs are recommended to develop

and implement gender sensitive strategies to address the rights and
needs of adolescent girls, including special action for their protection from
sexual exploitation and abuse, harmful traditional practices, including early
marriage, teenage pregnancy and vulnerability to sexually transmitted
diseases, and for the development of life skills and self-esteem.

6. Laws and other regulations can also be reviewed with an aim to eliminate
any discriminatory provisions. States need to commit themselves to
formulate specific legal and social provisions to counteract the girls'
unacceptable negative image in traditional and non-traditional media,
education and culture with a view to eliminate discrimination.

7. Educationalists and community leaders should take initiatives in

creating a learning environment in which girls are given equal
encouragement and opportunities to continue their education. Awareness-
raising training courses can be organized to target parents, classroom
teachers, boys and girls.

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8. Lower status of women in many cultures is often directly linked to the
gender bias in investment in girls. Investment in the empowerment of
women throughout the life-cycle must be encouraged.

9. Policies and programmes with an aim to create a non-discriminatory

environment in which girls are respected as equal citizens and are
encouraged to pursue their dreams and to exploit their potential, are
needed to help develop empowered women of the future. NGOs
intervention can play a critical role in this endeavour.

References:

1. Report, Adolescent Girls in India Choose a Better Future: An Impact

Assessment, The Centre for Development and Population Activities,
(CEDPA),September 2001

2. Seema Choudhary, C.P. Mishra and K.P. Shukla, Nutritional Status of

Adolescent Girls in Rural Area of Varanasi, Indian Journal of Preventive and
Social Medicine, Vol. 34, No. 1 & 2, 2003

3. Final Report, Intersectorial Experience in the Empowerment of Adolescent Girls,

Ministry Of Public Health And Social Assistance (Mspas)Republic Of El Salvador,
Central America

4. Report, "Kishori Sanghas" - An initiative for empowerment of adolescent girls in

Bangladesh, UNICEF

5. Craig Winston LeCroy, Evaluation of an empowerment program for early

adolescent girls, Adolescence. Fall 2004.

6. Report, Adolescents: Profile in Empowerment, UNFPA and UNICEF

7. Annual Report, SPARSH: The Empowering Touch, 2008

8. Ten Day Module for Facilitators on Gender Training with Adolescent Girls,
Prepared by: SPARSH-Center for Participatory Learning & UNICEF

9. UNICEF web sites

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