Empowering Adolescent Girls
The corporate giant AkzoNobel-supported girl child empowerment program under the banner Because I Am A Girl (BIAAG) is implemented by APSA as Disha Pari Udaan in Bengaluru and Parivarthan in Hyderabad. The project seeks to empower adolescent girls in 11 government schools in 15 slums by providing strategic program support through improvement of government school infrastructure and encouraging retention of girls in middle and high school by increasing community awareness. Started in 2016, the program is now in its fifth year of reaching out to underprivileged girls.
The programme aims to:
1) ensure that adolescent girls are encouraged to complete schooling and equipped with life skills and sexual health education, special programs of sports/co-curricular activities.
2) improve the infrastructure of 11 government schools including toilets, libraries and laboratories in order to increase enrolment and retention of children and encourage better quality of education.
3) raise awareness in 15 urban slum communities of value of the girl child.
4) advocate with duty bearers to enable better access to entitlements for adolescent girls.
Over the past few years of the project, APSA has provided schools with sports and games materials, awareness on child rights to Children’s Clubs, and supported schools to conduct sports events and cultural programmes for girls such as kho-kho, kabaddi, shot put, racing, musical chairs, rangoli, mehendi, and lemon & spoon competitions. School children have been taken on visits to science exhibitions and museums. Life skills and sexual health education, and counselling for the children were part of the school strengthening activities. Community-based organisations such as women’s SHGs and worker collectives were motivated and took part in rallies and meetings that highlighted the declining sex ratio, value of the girl child, gender sensitivity, the right to education.
The importance of protecting and educating girls and ensuring their retention in school has been stressed and reinforced in interaction with SHGs, parents’ groups, and the children’s collectives. Training sessions on life skills and sexual health for the children’s collectives and for schools have also been part of the project. Girls have been encouraged to take part in the Child-Friendly Ward Meetings with local administration and law enforcement authorities to address community and children’s issues. Towards improving school infrastructure, school WASH (toilet) facilities for boys and girls have been upgraded, and libraries and laboratories set up in 11 government schools. The project has also reached 2,500 adolescent children including dropouts.
