Indian J Pediatr 1991; 58 : 357-362

Empowering Young Girls for Health and Development

Sunder Lal, R.K. Saini, Pardeep Khanna and J.S. Malik

Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Medical College, Rohtak

Yuvati Vikas Kendra (YVK) model of empowering young girls in the age bracket of 7-19 years could raise the level of awareness and generate self- esteem and self-confidence in over 50% of young girls over a period of six months of operation. The YVK model was utilised by 37-55% of enrolled girls in different age brackets; thus these centres functioned well below their installed capacity. Functional inter-sectoral linkages have to be developed for better impact and better coverage. Data based information from other models of empowerment such as schools, non-format system of education and Inte- grated Child Development Services Scheme, is called for to choose different alternatives for our country, as no uniform system can succeed in this vast country. Diversified modes and approaches for empowerement of young girls are needed.

Key Words : Young girls; Yuvati vikas kendra; Empowering.

The year 1990 has been declared as the in- ternational year o f the girl child. In its wake, the United Nations have drawn their attention towards the health and develop- ment needs of young girls. 1 The girl child in the age bracket 7-19 years is neither reached by programmes for the child nor by those aimed at adult women? z The Indian Council of Medical Research launched a multicentric study with the main objective to demonstrate an alterna- tive model to improve the status of young girls through yuvati vikas kendras (YVK).

Yuvati Vikas Kendra is a focal point for delivcry of a package of services and infor- mation to young girls in their village. One

Reprint requests : Dr. S. Lal, Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Medical College, Rohtak-124 001.

YVK is expected to cover 50 young girls in the age group of 7-19 years; Each centre functions two days a week for 2-3 hours in a day. Key functionary of YVK is a locally resident women who has been designatcd as community welfare worker (CWW). She is a matriculate and has undergone one month training at the level of primary health centre. On the job training is a con- tinuous feature. CWW is a part-time worker and paid an honorarium of Rs. 300/- per month.

Each YVK functions in the premises of an ahganwadi (mother and child develop- ment Centre). Health workers and development functionaries support the ac- tivities of YVK. Once in a week, the CWW functions in the premises of a school and the school teachers are actively involved. The CWW also conducts home visits to

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358 TI IE INDIAN JOURNAL OF PEDIATRICS

encourage mothers to come along with their daughters to the YVK.

Supportive supervision to CWWs has been made available through two local part-time Supervisors (paid Rs. 500/- per month) and two whole-time Research Of- ricers.

The major activities organised at YVK are health demonstrations and talks, func- tional literacy, vocational training and group entertainment as also radio listening. These activities have been programmed daywise and sessionwise and the entire pro- gramme for one batch of 50 girls covered in approximately 100 hours is spread over a period of six months. There operates a built-in system of monitoring to assess the level of performance.

77~e Y.V.K. aims at (i) Improvement in gen- eral health and education capabilities of the target group (7-19 year girls) including family life education; (ii) Empowering young girls with vocational skills so that they have better access to employment op- portunities; and (iii) Enabling them to be self confident by generating in them a spirit of self reliance.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The programme covers 6 large villages of community development block Lakhan-

Vol. 58, No. 3

majra with a total population of 30,000. In these villages, 18 Yuvati vikas kendras (YVK) have been established to cover 900 girls in the age bracket of 7-19 years. Each Community welfare worker (CWW) man- ages 3 YVKs and covers 150 young girls. These YVKs have been linked with the sys- tem of Integrated child development serv- ices, health sub-centres and village schools. Major areas of intervention for empower- ing young girls comprised of health educa- tion, functional literacy, vocational training, group entertainment and organised radio listening. Non-formal approach was adopted with definite detailed instructional programme of 100 hours duration lasting six months.

The experiences of operating YVKs for the first year are reported in this report.

RESULTS

Eighteen ~ could hold 105-138 ses- sions per month for major health and de- velopment activities while only 36 sessions per month could be organized for sports and group activities (Table 1). These YVKs registered 827 young girls. The attendance pattern varied in different villages/centres. Pooled data for all the centres revealed that 37.72-55.62% of the enrolled girls could attend the various organized activi- ties/sessions in the centres regularly (i.e.

TABLE 1. Monthwise Number of Sessions for Various Activities at Yuvati Vikas Kendras

Activities April May June

Functional literacy and numeracy 108 108 108 Health education 135 131 138 Vocational trahaing 108 105 105 Group activities 36 36 36 Sports/Recreation 36 36 36

LAL ET AL : EMPOWERING YOUNG GIRLS FOR HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENrl " 359

T~.E 2. Attendance of Gii'ls for Various Activities at the Yuvati Vikas Kendra*. (N =827)

Activities Age Groups (Years)

7-11 12-14 15-19 Total

No. % No. % No. % No. %

Functional literacy/Numeracy 105 44.7 126 37.6

Health education 127 54.0 173 51.6

Vocational training 50 21.3 133 39.7

Group activities 92 39.1 136 40.6

Sports/Recreation 106 45.1 138 41.2

88 34.2 319 38.6

160 62.2 460 55.6

129 50.2 312 37.7

140 54.5 368 44.5

136 52.9 380 45.9

* Attended more than 50% of the sessions.

more than 50% of the sessions) (Table 2). Thus the YVKs functioned well below their installed capacity.

Major reasons for not attending or dropping out of centre in their neigh- bourhood were : household work, care of siblings, parents reluctance, lack of motiva- tion on the parts of girls, wage earning out- side home and marriages. Some girls con- sidered the activities of the centres not so gainful. Attempts were made to persuade parents through home visits and group dis- cussions to increase the attendance. On an average, 14-20 girls could assemble in one centre.

Concurrent evaluation through the par- ticipant observation of CWWs, supervisors and focussed group interviews with parents and girls revealed that personal hygiene practices (brushing of teeth, hand washing, nail cutting, eating clean food, wearing clean clothes, up-keep of hair etc.) im- proved and over 66.9% of girls acquired good hygienic practices. Similarly, practice of upkeep of good environments in and around house (smokeless chullah, safe dis- posal of refuse and garbage, keeping water

clean, accepting chlorination) was acquired by 54.3% of girls. Good dietary practices (eating green leafy vegetables and mixed cereals, cooking practices, adequate eating, cleaning utensils, protection of food from flies etc.) were acquired by 55% of girls. Practices of prevention of diseases/disor- ders (accepting immunization by getting young children immunized, vitamin A pro- phylaxis, iron and folic acid tablets, preven- tion of diarrhoea and use of home made ORS) was acquired by 74.5% of girls. Skills of first-aid, home safety and home nursing were acquired by 27.3% of girls (Table 3). Positive attitudes for family life and repro- ductive health (use of clean linen during menstruation, understanding reproduction physiology, contraception, limiting size of family, happy family) were acquired by 59.5% of girls.

In the field of functional literacy, 64.8, 45.7 and 65.9% of the girls out of school between the age groups of 7-11, 12-14 and 15-19 years learnt numeracy and simple arithmetic in the age brackets enumerated. 4.2 to 24.8% of the girls could read letters to their parents, 2.1 to 28.4% could write

360 TIlE INDIAN JOURNAL OF PEDIATRICS Vol. 58, No. 3

T~LE 3. Percent Change in Girls Regarding Various Health Practices

Health

Component

Change in practice (%)

Poor �9 Good

Personal hygiene practices 33.1 66.9 Environmental sanitation 45.7 54.3 Dietary practices

(eating more of 45.0 55.0 green leafy vegetables and mixed cereals, cooking practices etc.)

Prevention and control of diseases and disorders 25.5 74.5

First aid, home safety and home nursing 72.7 27.3

Positive attitude for family life and reproductive health 40.5 59.5

letters and over 50% could write their names. 7.8 to 15% of girls between the age of 15-19 years helped their parents for reading and writing and 27.6% in this age bracket he!ped their parents with news, (Table 4). Vocational skills (embroidery, decoration, knitting and tailoring) were acquired by 56-63% of the girls (Table 5). Vocational skills learning was the major at- traction and the items prepared by the girls were preserved/stored for dowry purposes. All girls were equivocal in asking for sew- ing machines and other facilities for voca- tional skills.

Because of the educational efforts, 19.4% of girls could persuade their parents for delaying their marriage, 87.5% now knew the right (legal) age of marriage, and 62.2% percent prefer equal treatment for boys and girls in the family for education and other amenities (Table 6).

DISCUSSION

Health and development of young girls is a crucial issue whereas young girls remain outside the purview of programmes meant for children and women though any pro- gramme conceived and implemented is likely to succeed. Yuvati Vikas Kendras (YVKs) established in June, 1989 have empowered the girl child to improve her own self image by rcsocialization, skill de- velopment, functional literacy and good health practices. Over 50% of the girls at- tending centre regularly have better aware- ness of key health mrssages and have im- proved their personal hygiene practices. 45-65% of the girls out of school have ac-- quired functional literacy skills.. Similarly 56-63% of the girls have acquired some or the other vocational skill. Over 87.5% of girls are now aware of the right age of mar- riage. The model of YVK, however, func- tions well below its installed capacity. In- tersectoral linkages have been developed to some extent but the real functional linkage needs much more efforts and re-orienta- tion of functionaries at various levels (vil- lage, block, district and state).

EmpoWering young girls out of school through non-formal education system as demonstrated successfully by Chitra Naik in Maharashtra can provide useful lead and can fulfil the commitment of National Lit, eracy Mission. .5 Vocationalisation of edu- cation in the schools as envisaged under New Education Policy can further attract young girls in the school for skills, learning and capacity building. 6 Thus for empower- ing young girls through formal system of schooling, non-formal and functional liter- acy systems for girls outside school can be exploited to the maximum. The other alter- native is enlarging the spectrum of services

LAL ET AL : EMPOWERING YOUNG GIRI~ FOR HEAL'I'll AND DEVELOPMENT

TABLE 4. Functional Literacy Skills Acquired by Girls

361

Activities Age groups (years)

7-11 12-14 15-19

I. Girls out of school attending YVK (a) Learned alphabets 64.8 36.4 53.9 (b) Numeracy 64.8 45.7 65.9

Readh~g

Elementary books 27.6 21.7 36.8 Short stories 7.4 13.9 29.7 Letters to parents '4.2 10.1 24.8 Numeracy 54.2 37.9 62.4

Writing

Alphabets 46.8 37.2 55.3 Signatures 57.4 51.2 69.5 Letters 2.1 12.4 28.4 Numeracy 15.9 30.2 58.1

II. Help illiterate parents in Reading 1.3 3.6 15.2 Writing 0.8 2.4 7.8 Numeracy 1.7 2.4 13.6

III. Keep family accounts 0.8 11.6 27.6

IV. Apprise parents with news etc. 25.5 24.8 42.4

(Figures are in percentages)

of integrated child development services to incorporate once again the element of functional literacy for young girls.

Since our country is quite vast, no uni- form single model of empowerment of young girls is likely to succeed, hence diver- sification and application of different mod- els integrating them with the existing sys- tems can go a long way.

ACKNOWLEDGEME~rS

The authors are extremely grateful to the Director General, ICMR, New Delhi for sanctioning and funding the project of 'Young Women Health and Development'.

TABLE 5. Vocational Skills Acquired by Girls Attending Yuvati Vikas Kendra

Vocational skills Girls with

Poor skills good skills % %

Embroidery 43.6 56.4

Decoration 43.2 56.8

Knitting 36.2 63.8

Tailoring 42.8 57.2

362 THE INDIAN JOURNAL OF PEDIA'I~RICS Vol. 58, No. 3

T~Lr 6. Change in Social Status of Girls Attendhag Yuvati Vikas Kendra (N= 257)

Social status components Percentage of girls

Give opinion to parents about

Delay in marriage

Know right age (legal) of marriage

Knowledge about pregnancy and contraception.

Represent the family in the neighbourhood social matter functions.

Prefer division of labour in the family.

Competes with boys/brothers

Prefer equal treatment in the family for food, clothes, education etc.

Go out for shopping

Go out to play with peer girls

Advice/give own views to parents about day to day family matters.

Disseminates her knowledge to others in the village.

19.4

87.5

62.2

85.2

81.7

67.7

62.2

51.7

33.1

46.7

28.4

REFERENCES

1. NIPCCD. Indian women in developing programmes and functionaries reaching women. NIPCCD Bull July-December, 1989.

2. NIPCCD. Report of the SAARC Workshop on the Girl Child 19-23 September, 1988; New Delhi.

3. NIPCCD. Report of the National Work- shop on the Girl Child 27-29 December 1987; Women Development Division, NIPCCD New Delhi.

4.

5.

6.

Naik C. Developing non-formal primary education-A rewarding experience. In- dian Institute of Education Pune; 1985 ; 46-47.

Directorate of Adult Education, Government of India, New Delhi. National Literacy Mission, Inter- national Literacy Day September 8, 1988; 14-16.

Ministry of Human Resources Develop- ment, Government of India. National Pol- icy of Education 1986; 5.