Bringing girls centre stage in Development
Young girls in Samuha are monitoring key government programs to improve service delivery and increase the community’s influence.
Five 14–16 year olds from each of 10 communities are supporting village committees, concerned with the education, maternal health, and early childhood care and development programmes.
The girls had life skills training and confidence building exercises, and identified adolescent issues like early marriage and parental pressure to drop out of school, poor showing in school results, teasing, harassment, death of loved ones and overwork. Alarmingly, the girls felt suicide was a reasonable option in such distressing situations.
The girls have been trained to recognise 12 warning signs or “red alert” indicators, and started manual monitoring and then digital monitoring through handheld PCs. They help the committees generate red alert indicators and present them in government forums. In many communities, service delivery has improved as a result of community monitoring.
A baseline community survey on health, education and nutrition showed that issues of reproductive health are extremely sensitive, as strong opposition stopped the research. However, the adolescent girls’ roles and the kind of cooperation expected have been addressed through parents’ meetings, workshops and community meetings.
Communities have recognised the girls’ growing confidence and their role in community development. The girls have shown great interest and enthusiasm for the life skills trainings and learning to use handhelds. This initiative brings adolescents into the centre stage. Developing community based organisations as pressure groups for quality services creates a non-confrontational interface with the departments of the state.
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