Overview on Adolescent Girl Empowerment Dec 2013

Overview

Adolescent girls in India are a large invisible population, amounting to 113 million, or 20% of the world’s adolescent girls, and are trapped in a society with socio-cultural practices and contrasting stages of development that leaves them powerless to make essential life-choices. Research indicates that adolescent girls are particularly vulnerable in Bihar, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, where over half of all adolescent girls are married before the age of 18, up to 95% of drop out of schools and over 50% face domestic violence. These girls have to face the following issues: • Many girls do not go to school • Get married at an early age, followed by early pregnancy • These girls are also prone to domestic violence • Many of these disempowered girls are also at a huge risk of being

trafficked

Solutions to tackle this issue: Engaging Youth: Working with young people is essential to make them aware of their choices in these matters and give them the appropriate information and support they need to exercise these choices. Mobilizing Communities: This process includes the involvement of staff and peer educators and home visits to help parents practice good parenting, establish bonds with adolescents and address risk factors within the home. Training Public Workers (Teachers and Public Healthcare Workers): Non profits have also realized the potential of building the capacities of different public service providers to ensure that they are sensitized towards the needs of adolescents and empowered to respond to these needs through their routine work.

“Every year of additional schooling for an adolescent girl means a 15% to 25% increase in her earning potential.” Source: The Girl Effect, Fact Sheet: India, accessed on: www.thegirleffect.org

Child Marriage

Child marriage is a human rights abuse with multiple consequences. For a girl, child marriage can mean the end of her education, grave health risks to her and her children, limited chances of financial independence, and ultimately a cycle of poverty and disempowerment. • At 40%, India accounts for the highest share of the world’s 60 million

child marriages • 61% of women in India aged 25-49 were married before the age of 18 • The median age at marriage among women ages 25-49 has barely risen,

from 16.1 years in the early 1990s to 16.8 years by the mid-2000s • Children of young mothers are 50% more likely to die than those born to

mothers aged 20-29

Solutions to tackle this issue: Creating alternative life options for girls: It is crucial to raise the visibility of socially valued roles for women beyond that of a wife and mother. Offering education, employability and exposure

to life skills, health information, and support networks will enhance the potential of girls and existing child brides. Identifying and sensitizing gatekeepers: It is important to identify and influence these gatekeepers, such as the girl’s father, brother, grandmother, in-laws or village leaders, to protect the girl child from the adversities of child marriage. Promoting birth and marriage registration: Mandating marriage registration ensures a girl’s entitlement rights, in case of separation or domestic violence.

Domestic Violence

Violence against women is a widespread phenomenon around the world, and is particularly prevalent in South Asia, especially in India. Violence against women is rooted in a gender framework that refers to widely held expectations about appropriate male and female behavior, roles and characteristics. It is not only a violation of human rights, but also negatively impacts intergenerational health and multiplies economic burdens. • Domestic violence accounts for 50% of all reported crimes against

women in India • 2 out of 5 women in abusive relationships stay silent about their suffering • Domestic violence • Nearly 75% of Indian women who report domestic violence have

attempted suicide • 54% women and 51% men agree that domestic violence is acceptable Solutions to tackle this issue: Prevention and early intervention: Creating an enabling environment of social and economic empowerment for women will help them immensely better negotiate their right to a violence free home. Power of the community: Informal networks such as family, friends, and neighbors usually provide the first point of contact for abused women. Nurturing such support groups will not only strengthen support services for a victim, but also deter abusers. Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005: Ensuring that this progressive, victim-oriented civil legislation actually facilitates a victim’s access to justice and support services requires increased political commitment and budgetary outlays; greater convergence between medical, legal and social systems; capacity building and training of these agencies; and mechanisms to ensure their accountability. Building knowledge and evidence: Building knowledge and collective evidence in the field on prevalence and patterns of domestic violence, and effective and scalable programmatic approaches.

Sex Trafficking

Trafficking is a crime against humanity - It can impede efforts to improve health, increase economic growth, achieve gender equality and can pose a threat to lifetime prospects of adolescent girls. This crime can however be combated through the effective functioning of the 4P framework: Prevention, Protection, Prosecution and Partnerships. • 3 million women (2.48%) are engaged in commercial sex activity (CSA) in

India, a 50% rise from 1997 • Over 60% of those trafficked into sex work are adolescent girls in the age

group of 12-16 years • India has 3 lakh brothels in 1100 identified red-light areas, housing nearly • 5 million children in addition to commercial sex workers (Burman 2008) • More than 25% of women in CSA in India are situated in Maharashtra

(14.20%) and West Bengal (13%)

Solutions to tackle this issue: Identifying the Underlying Factors and Facts of Sex Trafficking: Comprehensive data sets can facilitate an understanding of underlying factors of trafficking, establish linkages, and provide insights to tackle this macro problem. Strengthening institutional capacity and engaging key responders: Strengthening existing government infrastructure and sensitizing key responders such as gram panchayats, police and judiciary, to the issue of trafficking, will determine effective prevention and protection of the victim and prosecution of perpetrators. Focusing Anti-sex Trafficking Efforts on the Demand Side: Evidence suggests that focusing anti-trafficking efforts on clients, traffickers and corrupt police officials that abet trafficking will increase the risk and decrease the profitability of the trafficking business. Facilitating an Integrated and Holistic Human Rights Approach: It is critical to adopt a rights-based approach to trafficking as it places the victim at the center of all responses and ensures that the state remains accountable for promoting and protecting the rights of existing and potential trafficked persons.

Concluding Thoughts

Addressing the challenges facing the adolescent girl in India requires mobilizing the key influencers and influences in her life – at home, in school and at work – that can help realize her potential including self, peers, families, communities and institutions. For more information on this topic, please drop in an email to ipf@dasra.org

“Investing in an educated, healthy, skilled and empowered girl today means she will have the tools to reinvest back into her family, her community, and our world.” Source: UNICEF, State of the World’s Children, 2011

Thank You