Sukarya

India is home to 253 million adolescents and almost 72% of this adolescent population resides in slums & villages. Largely the access of knowledge and information on adolescent reproductive & sexual health and gender education is non-existent in India. And particularly in urban slums and rural villages are worse where families living in vulnerable conditions with minimal resources.

The primary beneficiaries of Sukarya’s Gender Equality program are the adolescent girls (11-19 years) include those attending government schools and those not attending any schools and live in slums & hard-to-reach villages of Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan.

As per the 2011 Census , almost 10% of India’s total slum population (about 6.5 million) live in the urban slums of Delhi, Rajasthan & Haryana which are characterized by acute poverty, over-crowding, unhealthy living conditions, and a weak or no urban public health setup. During pandemic like Covid-19 or any other epidemics, the prevention, control and preparedness would be the most fundamental task. Since Sukarya works in the area of basic health care services, it understands the enormous needs and severity of the issues in a better frame.

Therefore, Sukarya will include measures like WASH (Water, Sanitation & Hygiene), social distancing, use of Apps for social intervention, and effective community engagement for ensuring prevention from pandemics in its program curriculum. It will also upscale and empower 5000 adolescent girls who will not only bring the desired changes to strengthening the community and society but also will act as frontline volunteers to ensure better health.

The objectives of Sukarya’s Gender Equality Program are to:

• Provide the basic knowledge and awareness to adolescent girls (10-19 years age group) on reproductive and sexual health AND build their knowledge & skills on family life aspects.
• Educate, build their knowledge and understanding about gender discrimination, social stigma, issues and challenges.
• Learn the impact of WASH (Water, Sanitation & Hygiene) for maintaining good health at the community level, community engagement and communication.

Long-Term Impact of this program
These adolescent girls would be trained to be the peers to other adolescents living in their communities. They will be able to have a healthier life and would be well informed about health needs and rights, social stigma and gender equality aspects. Overall health and gender empowerment would ensure creating a healthy society. It will not only change the trajectory of the adolescent girls’ future, but that of their communities as well.