But where does it all begin? For girls from underprivileged communities, it begins when they’re still children. It’s when she notices fewer chapatis on her plate as compared to her brother. When she is asked to discontinue her education while her brother continues to go to school, because her family needs her to take care of household work instead.

This deep-rooted issue of gender inequality has made such adolescent girls even more vulnerable in COVID times. In the last 12 months, YOUNGISTAAN has worked tirelessly to ensure that India’s girls do not have to compromise on their basic rights, even in the midst of a pandemic, by:

Nutrition & Health: In times of crisis, the nutritional requirements of girls often get deprioritised over those of the male members of the family. To address this, YOUNGISTAAN has focused on:

• Providing take home rations for adolescent girls to help them fight anaemia and malnutrition
• Enabling kitchen gardens to create a sustainable source of continued nutrition for adolescent girls while helping them reduce their financial expenses on food
• Distributing hygiene kits among adolescent girls to enable them to manage their health and menstrual hygiene
• Spreading awareness about the importance of growing up healthy among adolescent girls through IVRS and by creating health champions within the community

Education: The closure of schools and the severe lack of digital access forced several girls to take up household responsibilities. To ensure this situation doesn’t become a permanent one, YOUNGISTAAN has focused on:

• Providing work sheets and guides to help adolescent girls prepare for their board exams
• Conducting community-based study sessions for adolescent girls in small groups using online mediums like WhatsApp
• Ensuring school linked study sessions by partnering with government schools and using other sources like Doordarshan and community radio

Safety & Protection: With the loss of livelihoods during the lockdown, many girls from underprivileged families were forced to either work or become child brides to ease off the financial pressure. Additionally, such girls were also extremely vulnerable to sexual abuse, violence and exploitation. To make sure that they stay protected, YOUNGISTAAN has focused on:

• Spreading awareness among adolescent girls by using community radio and IVRS to inform them about helpline numbers they could call and report any incidences of child labour or child marriage etc. or ask for help for themselves
• Rescuing over 500 girls from child marriage in India by keeping in touch with the community