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| Advocacy
and Communication : |
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| Advocacy
on Issues Relating to Adolescents/ Young People |
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| a. Alliance
for Young People: Towards A Healthy Future |
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“The India
Alliance for Young People: Towards a Healthy Future” has
been formed with the basic objective of creating an alliance
between policy-makers, people who work with youth and young
people themselves who would weave together a rich fabric
of experiences from across the country in the area of health,
particularly reproductive and sexual health and rights and
development, which would then have a bearing on the making
of effective, need based programmes and policies. The core
members of the Alliance are Bal Panchayats, Centre for Health,
Education, Training and Nutrition Awareness (CHETNA), Centre
for Development and Population Activity (CEDPA), Child in
Need Institute (CINI), Community Aid and Sponsorship Programme
(CASP), MAMTA, National Foundation of India (NFI), Pathfinder
International, Plan International India, Population Council
and Population Foundation of India (PFI). The PFI is hosting
the Secretariat of this Alliance for the first two years.
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| National Level Consultation: 21 – 23
May, 2004 |
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Around five hundred representatives
from twenty States took part in the first National Level
Consultation in May 2004 at New Delhi. This consultation
was organized by the Bal Panchayat of CASP-Plan, Delhi and
supported by a consortium of agencies including the Ministry
of Youth Affairs and Sports and Ministry of Health and Family
Welfare, Government of India. The essence of the Consultation
was captured by rapporteurs, writers and film makers most
of whom were young people. Almost every session included
at least one young presenter. The discussions at the Consultation
were lively and often extended beyond the session itself. |
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The National Level Consultation
synthesized the situation and needs of young people, reviewed
the various programmes and policies for youth and made suggestions
for changes, shared evidence based effective practices and
models, established a joint monitoring mechanism in consultation
with various Ministries and networks, and above all created
a forum for open discussion on health and development issues
for youth. |
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| The presentations made at the Consultation
brought out the major challenges faced by adolescents, including
health risks, communication gap in relations with parents and
adults, lack of education, life skills and opportunities for
livelihood and limited participation of youth in policy framing
and programme implementation. |
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| The recommendations
that emerged out of the Consultation were: |
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Educate youth |
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Build life and livelihood
skills and opportunities |
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Address gender imbalances and involve males
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Provide youth-friendly services |
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Provide training to teachers and health care providers |
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Involve parents and trusted
adults |
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Use the media to highlight
youth related issues |
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Build a strong evidence
base on best practices |
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Respect young people’s
rights |
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Address the special needs
of neglected sub-populations and |
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Increase budgetary allocation
for young people’s health, education and development
and livelihood opportunities |
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The proceedings of the consultation were brought out as
a publication and widely disseminated.
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State Level Consultations:
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To
assess the impact of the advocacy campaign involving MLAs
and members of the corporate sector in Punjab, Haryana
and Himachal Pradesh on the issue of sex selection and
pre-birth elimination of females, a mid term evaluation
study was conducted by Unnati Features, a Delhi-based organization.
Visits were made to all the three states and MLAs and corporate
leaders who attended the workshops were interviewed. The
out come of the study was encouraging with some positive
feedback from the stakeholders. The persons who were interviewed
appreciated the initiatives of PFI and Plan International,
India and pledged to give complete support to the campaign. |
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Details of the workshops held from April 2004 to March,
2005 are as shown in the table below:
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STATES |
DATES |
Lead NGOs involved in organizing Workshops
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1. |
Tamil Nadu& Pondicherry |
March
31-April 3, 2004 |
RUHSA,
MYRADA-Plan |
2. |
Bihar |
April 5-7, 2004 |
Pathfinder
International |
3. |
Jharkhand |
April 15-17, 2004 |
CINI/PFI |
4. |
Rajasthan I |
April 19-21, 2004 |
CHETNA |
5. |
Gujarat |
April 27-30, 2004 |
CHETNA |
6. |
Delhi
East/North |
April
29-30, 2004 |
CASP-Plan
and PFI Secretariat |
7. |
Andhra
Pradesh |
May
3-4, 2004 |
AGS-Plan/Reddy
Foundation |
8. |
Karnataka |
May
5-8, 2004 |
MYRADA-Plan |
9. |
National Consultation |
May
19-21,2004 |
Delhi
by CASP Plan and PFI Secretariat |
10. |
Orissa |
June
28-29, 2004 |
CYSD-Plan |
11. |
West
Bengal |
September
24, 2004 |
CINI |
12. |
Punjab |
October
6, 2004 |
VHA
Punjab and PFI Secretariat |
13. |
Jammu and Kashmir |
December
5-6, 2004 |
NSUI
and PFI Secretariat |
14. |
Meghalaya |
December
16 -17, 2004 |
Impulse
network and PFI Secretariat |
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Activities
carried out as a follow up of the State Level Consultations |
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Around eighty-five young people and facilitators from the
neighbouring districts of Hyderabad participated at a workshop
on youth perspectives on female foeticide and birth registration
on September 9, 2004. Other follow up workshops have been
held in West Bengal and Orissa. As a follow up activity of
the State Level Consultation in Andhra Pradesh ,Youth Alliances
in Coastal Andhra Pradesh (Vishakapatnam) were formed with
twenty-five Non-Governmental Organizations functioning in
11 Mandals and consisting of five thousand girls (tribals,
dalits, fisher folk). The main objectives of the Alliances
are campaigning against child labour and trafficking of young
people and campaigning for 100% birth registration to reduce
child labour, trafficking, and early marriage.
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In
Uttaranchal the follow up activity included a joint venture
on computer training, between an NGO ‘SPM’ and ‘TERI’,
the formation of ‘Kishor / Kishori Samuha’ formed
at the village level and’Kishor / Kishor Sangam’ at
the Block and District levels. The issues addressed were
environment and livelihood and the involvement of the Panchayati
Raj. |
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Development
of the Yuvamaitri website |
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To give the young people (10-24 age group) an open space
to share experiences and to provide them with credible, relevant
information and to facilitate communication amongst themselves,
a website called Yuvamaitri has been developed. This Open
Space is a forum where adolescents can learn what is happening
in other parts of the country and share their own experiences.
This is meant to be a tool to empower them with knowledge
and the ability to share their views, give their inputs and
exchange ideas. The value of grassroots information brought
in by the youth has been recognized by governments and funding
agencies as invaluable for policy development. It is hoped
that the youth would be able to voice their reproductive
and sexual health needs and rights to influence the national
level policies and also participate in implementation of
the programmes through this Open Space.
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Six
of the Founding Core Members of the national alliance participated
at a discussion at the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.
The Alliance was requested to prepare an action plan for
the National Policy for Youth, 2003 where the views of the
youth are taken into account. |
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International
Youth Day |
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The
Secretariat at PFI, in collaboration with the Ministry of
Youth Affairs and Sports organized an event on the eve of
the International Youth Day on 11 th August 2004. The theme
for the occasion was ‘Youth in an Intergenerational
Society’. A cross-section of adolescents and
youth representatives from various parts of the country converged
at the India International Centre in New Delhi on 11 th August
to celebrate this occasion and to voice their views. A report
documenting the dreams and aspirations of India’s adolescents
and youth and their recommendations and suggestions for their
own development was released at this event by Mr Sandeep
Dixit, Member of Parliament. |
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Mr
Yashodhan Ghorpade, a young member representing the Alliance
made a presentation on the reforms and changes needed in
the National Youth Policy. |
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Mr
B G Deshmukh, former Cabinet Secretary and a Member of the
Governing Board, PFI said that the issues of young people
are numerous. There is a need to prioritize issues at the
national level. The development of youth should not be seen
in isolation, but should be a part of overall community development.
He suggested that the government should change the delivery
system and invite large participation of NGOs and youth in
information and service delivery system. |
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This
was followed by presentation of the major findings and recommendations
of the state level consultations by youth of various states,
for the purpose of experience sharing. |
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National
Student and Youth Parliament on HIV and AIDS |
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Over
three thousand people consisting of representatives of student
unions, universities, bodies such as the Nehru Yuva Kendra
Sangathan, National Service Scheme, rural youth, NGOs members,
government officials, Member of Parliaments, Member of Legislative
assemblies from five hundred districts attended the two day
National Youth Parliament on 6 th and 7 th November 2004
in New Delhi. The main objective was to bring the youth together
to fight AIDS and present to the Government their recommendations
on the draft law on HIV/AIDS. |
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This event was organized by Government of India’s
Parliamentary Forum on HIV/AIDS (PFA) with support from the
National AIDS Control Organization (NACO), Ministry of Health
and Family Welfare, Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports,
Ministry of Human Resource Development and the Joint United
Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS etc.), civil society
organizations including the Lawyers' Collective, CARE, MAMTA
and the Secretariat of the Alliance of Young People-Towards
a Healthy Future. Seeing the strength of the members of the
alliance, UNICEF approached the PFI to provide trained resource
persons for the entire event. Members of the Core Group such
as CINI, MAMTA, Plan International, PFI, CASP, and CHETNA
supported the cause by sending experienced resource persons
who shared their valuable insights and expertise in the area
of HIV/AIDS, at the workshops. In addition, NGOs networking
with the Secretariat from various States also sent their
resource persons to share in the required language needed
which helped in making the event successful
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The
Hon’ble Prime Minister inaugurated the event which
was also attended by Hon’ble Vice President of India,
Hon’ble Mr Oscar Fernandez, Convener, PFA, UNAIDS Executive
Director Dr Peter Piot, senior parliamentarians and political
leaders. The draft of the Bill on HIV/AIDS was finally presented
to the Hon’ble Union Minister of Health and Family
Welfare. |
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Global
Movement for Children |
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A
series of one-day orientation workshops was organized involving
young people to equip them with the basic concepts related
to HIV/ AIDS and other issues regarding Sexually Transmitted
Infections (STIs) and Reproductive Tract Infections (RTIs).
The participants were young people working on HIV/AIDS projects
as coordinators or peer educators spreading awareness on
the preventive aspects of HIV/ AIDS. They were working with
different target groups- school students, out of school students,
sex workers, truck- drivers and many others. An important
objective was also to introduce to them the concept of life
skills which they could apply to their day to day lives.
These would help them to handle the day to day pressures
better and to lead productive lives. |
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The
participants were asked to give a plan of action in the form
of an article, called the ‘good news’ A major
part of the workshop was a discussion on how to handle a
crisis situation. They were asked to write some ‘good
news’ articles about their activities, over the period
of one year. They were asked to describe their ‘good
news’ about their achievements during 2005 related
to HIV/AIDS specifically and also related to child and youth
support in general. The target for each youth participant
was to train 50 young persons and each adult was encouraged
to train 100 young persons to spread awareness on HIV HIDS
in their respective areas of work. |
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The
workshop was conducted for training of trainers who would
spread awareness amongst adolescents and youth about the
present situation regarding HIV/AIDS and provide them with
basic information about the disease and how it can be prevented.
A Pre Test Questionnaire was circulated to assess the extent
of the knowledge of participants.
The first phase of the workshop was organized in December
2004 at the campus of Bharat Scouts and Guides in Nizamuddin,
New Delhi, while the second phase of the workshop was organized
in January, 2005 at PHD Chamber House in New Delhi.
In its second year of functioning as the Secretariat of
the Alliance of Young People: Towards a Healthy Future, some
of the activities planned include the mapping of Alliance
partners who have been involved in all its activities, across
the country, and the regular maintenance of the Yuvamaitri
website. An intensive Advocacy Campaign against pre-birth
elimination of females in the nine districts of Delhi, involving
young people would also be carried out during the period
April to July, 2005. |
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b.
Advocacy on Young Adults’ Reproductive and Sexual
Health (YARSH) issues in Bihar and Jharkhand |
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The Population Foundation of India, with the support from
the Packard Foundation, has taken up an advocacy initiative
in the states of Bihar and Jharkhand. The project aims to
build supportive environment for population stabilization
by meeting Reproductive and Sexual Health (RSH) needs of
young adults.
During a three year period, the project
will be implemented in four districts – two each
in Bihar (Gaya and Vaishali); and Jharkhand (Ranchi and
Hazaribagh). Workshops are to be organized at block, district
and state levels in Bihar and Jharkhand on YARSH issues.
The main objectives of public-private health care providers
and PRIs on YARSH issues towards population stabilization;
prepare district plan of action based on the district level
interventions and suggest recommendations to the State
governments to incorporate them in the State Health Policy
and Plan; and documentation and dissemination of lessons
learnt and best practices from the field.
The first phase of eighteen months in Jharkhand was completed
in March 2005. The project team along with the individuals
and agencies working on the issues of Young people have collectively
prepared District Action Plans (DAPs) for Ranchi and Hazaribagh.
The district level workshops for Ranchi and Hazaribagh were
held in January 2005 and February 2005 respectively. The
DAPs were well received by development agencies and Government
departments. After the finalization of the Plans of Action,
a state level dissemination meeting was organized in March
2005 to share the documents and work out future steps for
continued advocacy on YARSH issues in the state. A network
has been formed by the stakeholders including the government
that meets on a regular basis and a continued dialogue with
the state government is in place. Looking at the need of
follow-up of upcoming issues, PFI is willing to continue
working in Jharkhand in close co-ordination with the development
agencies and government departments. The follow-up activities
have been streamlined with specific outputs and activities.
The second phase of the project in the two districts of
Bihar, namely, Vaishali and Gaya, started from April 2005.
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