Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco and SAMUHA - Bangalore, have established the SAMUHA - UCSF Collaborative Research Programme on Gender and Health. The Programme will collaborate with projects within SAMUHA, namely, Munjavu (Raichur and Koppal Districts), Samraksha (HIV/AIDS project) and Jana Sahayog (urban resource group in Bangalore). Additional partners include Bangalore Medical Sciences Trust (Bangalore) and the International Center for Research on Women (USA), and a network of local non-governmental organizations (NGO's) working with adolescents. Through this collaborative effort, the Karnataka Adolescent Livelihoods and Reproductive Health Project was launched in 2002.
Objectives:
To conduct research to understand the economic, reproductive, and sexual health needs of adolescent girls.
To identify an existing intervention, or develop an intervention that links livelihoods, and reproductive and sexual health (RSH) of adolescent girls.
To implement and evaluate the intervention to test the hypothesis that interventions designed to increase young women's economic power will help to delay marriage, empower them within marriage, and ultimately reduce their risk of HIV and other adverse reproductive health outcomes.
Methods:
Situation assessment of existing services , resources, and knowledge base.
Focus group discussions and In-depth interviews.
- Married, unmarried adolescent girls
(11-20 yrs), and mothers of unmarried adolescent girls.
- Adolescent boys, parents and key informants.
Participatory research and action.
- Media activities (film and community radio).
Cross-sectional survey.
- Married, unmarried adolescent girls, and mothers 14-20 yrs.
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Partners
+ SAMUHA (Bangalore, Raichur and Koppal districts)
+ Jana Sahayog, urban development resource group
+ Munjavu, women's self-help/micro-credit network
+ People & Environment, community-based rural development
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Women's Global Health Imperative (WGHI) at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF, USA).
+ Bangalore Medical Sciences Trust (BMST, Bangalore)
+ International Center for Research on Women (USA)
+ In.In.De - Innovation In Developments.
+ Network of Adolescent NGO's and Foundations
+ Funded by the Levi Strauss Foundation
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Our ultimate objective is to increase young people's control over sexual interactions and to decrease incidence of HIV, STI's, and unintended pregnancies. In India, adolescent women, both married and unmarried, often lack even basic knowledge about HIV transmission and prevention measures. In addition, gender disparities in economic power and unequal social status affect their capacity to influence when, where, and how sexual relations occur, rendering them vulnerable to coerced or unwanted sex, and placing them at high risk of exposure to HIV, which is becoming increasingly prevalent in India. Thus, in order to be effective, HIV prevention interventions must not only provide the information and tools that young women need to protect themselves from infection, but must also address gender-based economic inequities directly. Although other agencies are already engaged in either economic or reproductive health programs in our proposed site, very few focus on adolescent girls and none bring the two components together in the catalytic way we propose or directly link their programs to prevention of HIV.
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HIV in India – some facts
+ By end of 2002, between 3.82 and 4.58 million people infected with HIV.
+ In the past year, at least 300,000 people acquired HIV.
+ Thus far, epidemic localized among “high risk groups”
+ Evidence that epidemic is generalizing
+ Young married women at highest risk |
The Adolescent Livelihoods Project is designed to involve adolescents in the process of research and self-awareness. As part of this process, we worked with adolescent girls in Koppal district to produce a film that captures the lives and experiences of adolescent girls. The film follows a day in the life of a 17 - year - old girl from a Lambani thanda. She is a very strong and passionate girl who talks about how her own forms of resistance to the challenges that she, as a young woman faces, as well as her family and community. She is a dynamic and eloquent speaker with amazing strength, insight and maturity. It is a short (8 min) but powerful film that demonstrates how adolescent girls, despite the adversity they face, do have strategies and the ability to resist and have hope. The conceptualization, shooting, and editing was done in collaboration with Jasmine films (Bangalore) and the adult and adolescent advisory committees set up within the local communities of Koppal district. Adolescent girls participated in the filming, editing, and sound recordings.
Upon completion of the film, adolescents girls and adult women will be involved in screening the film and conducting workshops with audiences on the process of creating the film and the different themes addressed. This film will hopefully be used a forum for communicating and opening dialogue on issues of livelihoods and reproductive health among adolescent girls.
With Innovations in Development (In.In.De.), Samuha's communication resource unit, we piloted a community broadcasting and radio program with adolescent girls. Twelve adolescent girls from the urban site participated in a two-month workshop to learn about broadcasting, script and song writing, and communication and they identified core issues relevant and important to them and other girls in their community. The first module, on hygiene and sanitation will now be piloted in the community and we will develop monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to better understand the impact of this program on adolescent girls' lives. Future modules will include topics of menstruation and reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, economic resources, savings, and other issues relevant to adolescent girls' livelihoods and the broader community. Through this program, we aim to create a broad forum for their voices to be heard and an opportunity for dialogue and community-driven social change.
Rural economic strategy
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Integrating economic livelihoods interventions for adolescent girls into larger development programs such as micro-credit/SHG's with adult women, etc.
Potential Benefits
a) Increased sustainability
b) Greater access to resources and opportunities
c) Improved ability to replicate and scale-up
d) Increased visibility and mobility
e) Increased social support
Rural Pilot Interventions
. Home shopping project
. Animal health worker training program
. Tie & Dye bed-sheet production center
. Community monitoring project |
Urban Economic Strategy
. Coordination and integration of existing resources
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Government resources and training ; non-governmental training and skills building ; for-profit sector opportunities
Urban Pilot Interventions - Adolescent Resource Centre
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Database of existing resources and opportunities
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Links to vocational training and school completion programs
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Promote computer and financial literacy
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Coordinate new opportunities for training and employment in information technology sector (IT)
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Job placement and career counseling
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Rationale behind the Economic Strategies :
While the overall approach and several of the components of our program are similar for both the rural and urban setting, the distinct economic environments have led us to design two strategies for addressing adolescent girls' economic needs. In the rural site, our research indicates that the larger environment in which these girls survive cannot be ignored in any intervention that is designed to meet adolescent girl's needs. In this highly impoverished area where drought, food scarcity, and heavy migration compound the existing poverty, illiteracy, child marriage, and poor health outcomes, interventions targeting adolescent girls must be integrated into existing development activities. In the urban site, our research indicates that there are potentially sufficient local resources to meet the livelihoods and reproductive and sexual health needs of adolescent girls in the urban area. However, because these resources are neither coordinated or integrated, nor targeted to teens, adolescent girls rarely use them.
