Empowering Young Leaders: Redefining SRH Norms Through Collective Action

Author: Moumita Sarkar

Recognizing the multifaceted challenges faced by adolescent girls and young women in accessing Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) rights, Ipas Development Foundation (IDF) adopts an ecosystem approach to empower and support them on their journey. Our youth SRH program encompasses interventions at both the community and public health facility levels, aiming to enhance knowledge and amplify the voices of young people while ensuring the availability of youth-friendly SRH services for improved access.

Empowering Young Champions for SRH Rights

Suparna, a dedicated Yuva Sathi in Anjinagar village in the South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, engages with adolescents and young women in her village, holding weekly sessions to facilitate various activities. During one such session, Sumona, a group member, shared her family's pressure to marry her off before she turned 18. Unable to communicate effectively with her parents, Sumona sought Suparna's help.Suparna, along with a few other group members and the Youth Leader Rakhi, initiated a conversation with Sumona's mother and other family members. They enlisted the support of the village ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activist) to help convince Sumona’s parents. After several discussions, her family agreed to postpone the marriage until Sumona reaches the appropriate age and gives her informed consent. Through dialogue and collaboration with the family and community stakeholders, they successfully postponed the marriage, ensuring Sumona's right to choose and consent.

There are many girls like Sumona, unable to communicate effectively or reason with their parents to mitigate such situations. But these youths have been able to channel their concerns and seek help from the Yuva Saathis (YS), like Suparna. Yuva Saathis, who belong to the same village, engage with adolescents and young women, holding weekly sessions to facilitate discussions around SRH. These sessions help the adolescents come together and seek support from each other.

Suparna's story echoes across communities where IDF has empowered over 900 young women as Youth Leaders and Community Champions to enhance the sexual and reproductive health knowledge and decision-making abilities of young women. Selected from local communities and trained through capacity-building programs and on-the-job mentoring, these young leaders lead IDF's youth sexual and reproductive health initiatives in remote villages across four states. These young leaders have engaged with over 100,000 adolescent girls and young women, educating them on sexual and reproductive health and rights, fostering gender awareness, and enhancing life skills.

Improving Access to SRH Services

Adolescents and young women often face multiple challenges in accessing SRH services, leading to compromised sexual and reproductive health. The youth leaders play a pivotal role in improving access to SRH services for young women through referral and accompanied support. IDF’s SRH work also ensures the availability of youth-friendly SRH services in public health facilities through training and ongoing mentoring support to the service providers and coordination with the health officials.

In the remote village of Pondi in the Satna district of Madhya Pradesh, a 19-year-old unmarried girl, under immense pressure from her family to terminate her pregnancy, reached out to youth leader Pushpa for help. Although Pushpa immediately promised support, she faced an obstacle at the nearest public health facility, Community Health Centre Maihar, due to the unavailability of an abortion service provider. Pushpa then contacted another youth leader, Sudha, from Uchehara block. Together, they accompanied the girl to Unchehara CHC, where she received abortion care. The provider prioritized her case, ensuring privacy and counseling her father, bringing immense relief to the family. Grateful for the support and care, the family expressed heartfelt thanks to the youth leaders.

Youth Leaders like Pushpa play a very important role in bridging the gap between the demand for and the provision of SRH services, including abortion and contraception, while maintaining the confidentiality and dignity of the girls.

Fortifying Collective Action for SRH and beyond

A collective voice and action with relevant stakeholders are imperative to address the barriers and community norms around young people’s sexual and reproductive health. Community interventions spearheaded by Youth Leaders and Yuva Saathis have established platforms and opportunities for adolescents and young women to engage in SRH discussions, identify key barriers and social norms that impede access to these rights, devise action plans to address them, and hold interface meetings with local self-government representatives. This process has been instrumental not only in prioritizing their needs and catalyzing collective action to overcome these barriers but also in enhancing the participation of young women in existing platforms such as gram sabhas and panchayat-level meetings of VHSNCs (Village Health, Sanitation, and Nutrition Committees). These platforms allow them to raise concerns about issues such as early marriage, eve-teasing, and domestic violence, thus amplifying their voices and influence within their communities.

The village meetings led by Parvina, an 18-year-old Yuva Sathi in Barakara village of West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district, serve as a platform for young women to delve into significant sexual and reproductive health topics, highlighting challenges and barriers they face around SRH. For example, the group struggled with the challenge of menstrual waste disposal in their village. After many discussions, the group approached the Kamarchak gram panchayat pradhan with an urgent request for a sanitary waste disposal facility. Their persistence paid off when the panchayat chief, Gobinda Mandal, acknowledged their demand and allocated a budget in the gram panchayat development plan for the disposal facility.

In Enchinda Dipasai village, Jharkhand, Yuva Sathi Sophia and her peers addressed the issue of eve-teasing. During community meetings, concerns arose about dense bushes at the village entrance, which provided cover for inappropriate behavior towards passing girls. The girls came together to clear the bushes to improve visibility, thus enhancing security, and applied to the Panchayat Pradhan, requesting punitive measures against harassers. The girls are proud of their independent collective action, demonstrating the power of collective effort and community involvement in creating a safer environment.

IDF envisions further strengthening community leadership to dismantle barriers and redefine societal norms concerning sexual and reproductive health rights. We will persist in amplifying collective voices and championing for change, driving forward our mission of building the agency of young women.