v
Conduct dialogue with media to take their voices at policy and programme level
v
Build the skills and perspective of youth by different capacity building
programme
Core founding members
v
Bal Panchayat, New Delhi
v
Centre for Health Education, Training and Nutrition Awareness (CHETNA),
Ahmedabad
v
Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA), New Delhi
v
Child in Need Institute (CINI), Kolkata
v
Community Aid and Sponsorship Programme (CASP) , New Delhi
v
MAMTA Health Institute for Mother and Child, New Delhi
v
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, New Delhi
v
Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, New Delhi
v
Pathfinder International, New Delhi
v
Plan International India, New Delhi
v
Population Foundation of India (PFI), New Delhi
v
Population Council, New Delhi
Criteria for
organizational membership
v
Any organization including CBO’s, NGOs, academic institutions, research organizations, government and funding agencies can become partners, having:
v
Expertise in and experience of working on young people needs for at least 5 years
v
Should share the vision, objectives and strategies of the Alliance
v
Should be willing to freely share their resources and expertise with the
Alliance
v
The organization should not be affiliated with any form of fundamentalism
Criteria for individual
membership
v Have
Indian citizenship
v Accept
the vision, objectives and strategies of the Alliance
v Age:
above 18 years
Activities of
the Alliance: Year 2006-2008
Population Foundation
of India facilitated the process of the Youth Alliance during the first two
years of its existence. CHETNA took over the responsibility of the Secretariat
from May 2006 up to May 2008 to be followed by CINI Kolkata from May 2008
onwards.
During its two years as
the Secretariat of the Alliance, CHETNA made many efforts to take the process of
advocacy related to Adolescent Reproductive and Sexual Health ahead. The efforts
undertaken during the period are given below.
Collective efforts for
the formulation of the Youth Policy:
The year 2003 was a
milestone as the adolescents were recognized as an important group in the
National Youth Policy. The two core members of the Youth Alliance, CHETNA and
Population Foundation of India, took an initiative to draft the State Youth
Policy of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Bihar and Jharkhand. A collective action was
organized during May-June, 2006 in collaboration with the Department of Sports,
Youth and Cultural Activities with the objective to jointly discuss issues and
concerns of young people and bring forward recommendations to develop state
specific youth policies.
Contribution to XI Five
Year Plan (FYP)
During 2006, in the
finalization phase of XI FYP of the Government of India (GOI), as a part of sub
group and drafting committee, CHETNA on behalf of National Alliance, contributed
by drafting a paper on ‘Youth Development Perspective’. CHETNA was also a member
of the working group which was involved in drafting recommendations to address
the development concerns of adolescents to Planning Commission to be included in
XI FYP. The Working Group on Adolescent Development for formulation of XI FYP
had proposed five schemes and forwarded to planning commission for approval.
Making the Youth and
Adolescents responsible and sensitizing them on Population and Health Issues
To mark the occasion of
the World Population Day (WPD) CHETNA, with Alliance partners, in collaboration
with Jansankhya Sthirata Kosh (JSK), facilitated sessions on issues related to
population stabilization on 11-12 July 2007 at New Delhi. It aimed to enhance
young people’s understanding on life skills such as assertive communication,
decision making, negotiation skills, etc to make young people responsible for
population stabilization and their overall growth and development. Rights and
Gender were the cross cutting issues. More than 500 youth of 16-20 age group
from under served villages of the eight Empowered Action Group (EAG) States
participated.
The sessions
effectively elicited young people’s participation. Young people shared their
experiences, such as efforts at family and community level. They found the
sessions very interesting as they provided opportunity to interact and share
their feelings, frustrations, concerns, arguments and action plans. Some of the
young people also assured the facilitators that they will apply skills learnt
during the sessions in the area of education, marriage and family planning in
their own lives.
During the programme, a
quiz was also planned. CHETNA provided support by formulating questions and
resource support during the quiz programme.
Reviewing and
monitoring the act of banning sex education in formal schools:
To develop a common
understanding about the sudden decision of about 13 state governments to ban sex
education from the formal school system the Alliance partners collected
information on the processes which took place at the state and national level.
The Alliance organized a series of meetings to share information and learn from
the experiences of youth and stakeholders involved in implementation of sex
education. These meetings culminated in a national dialogue followed by
organizing a satellite session in the 4th Asia Pacific Conference on
Reproductive and Sexual Health.
National dialogue on
sexuality education in the formal system
The ban on school based
sexuality education program in some states of India raised a debate on the issue
among different groups, lobbies and sectors. Considering the
urgent need of the hour, the situation required to be reviewed rationally and
appropriate decisions taken so that the young people may not be deprived of the
right to information. The National Alliance organized a series of in-house
discussions among the partners to advocate for re-introducing sexuality
education in the curriculum of schools.
A national dialogue was
organized to develop a common agenda for countering the mounting opposition to
sexuality education in schools across the country on 6th August 2007
at New Delhi. A total of 23 participants including the State level
representatives from the government, civil societies and funding agencies
deliberated on the need. During the discussion, it was pointed out that
sexuality education was not new. It had been a part of the school curriculum for
several years under different names. The use of the term ‘sex education’,
however, was new and probably responsible for the current controversy. The consensus was to use the term 'adolescence education' instead of sex education,
with active involvement of students, teachers and guardians.
The Alliance visualizes
their role in monitoring the process of reintroduction of sex education and
capacity building of the teachers for effective implementation of the programme.
Satellite session at 4th
APCRSH
A Satellite Session on
“Family Life Education Through Life Skill Approach” was organized in the 4th
Asia Pacific Conference on Reproductive and Sexual Health (APCRSH) conference in
Hyderabad by the National Youth Alliance. The main aim to organize the satellite
session was to provide platform to all the concerned stakeholders to share their
experience of sex education in school curriculum. Approximately 70
representatives from NGOs, both national & international, donor community,
individuals & young people participated.
Youth representatives
having exposure to RSH education from Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Gujarat, etc
shared their views and experiences. A discussion was generated by researchers on
the NFHS III data highlighting the myths related to SRH education vis-à-vis its
reality, which was supported by an evidence based study. The study showed that
the parents rarely provide RSH information to the youth, whereas peers and
pornographic material are their main sources of information. The representative
from NCERT, clarified the role and commitment of the state on sexuality
education issues to be integrated with the life skills program at the national
level.
This was a cross
learning effort. International experiences from Pakistan, Philippines,
Cambodia, etc were shared along with their scenario and the stake of the
Government in the same. Youth of today form a large section of society. It was
concluded that to be able to invest on resources and information for the youth,
lack of money and /or time should not be limiting factors.
Efforts and
publications of the Alliance and its partners were showcased at a stall at the
conference.
During the coming year
the Alliance will be taking a proactive role of review and monitoring of the
process of sex education in the formal schools.
From May 2008, onwards
CINI Kolkata will be taking responsibility of facilitating the activities of the
National Alliance.
Adolescent Scheme
The Ministry of Women
and Child Development, Government of India is in the process of formulating a
Scheme for Empowerment of Adolescent Girls (AG). A set of Guidelines is being
circulated for eliciting suggestions. On behalf of the Alliance, CHETNA team
forwarded comments and suggestions to strengthen the scheme.
Comments were related
to objectives, identification of target groups, operational guidelines,
social/economic empowerment of Adolescent Girls (AG), Nutrition and Health of
AGs, Areas of convergence, coordination, Monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to
strengthen its implementation and out reach.
