Adolescent Empowerment Programme Endline Survey Results. Breakthrough’s 5-year long intervention in various districts of Uttar Pradesh proves that social norm change is possible.
Awareness around violence against girls and boys sees a substantial increase as per the endline survey.
Breakthrough AEP Impact:
- Attitude towards non-acceptance of any form of violence against boys and girls has positively increased by 21% in intervention endline, in comparison to control end line and baseline rounds.
- Adolescent discussion with parents regarding life choices has steadily improved within the intervention areas during the end line, showcasing a 25% increase over the baseline score.
Breakthrough has been working with adolescents through an umbrella programme idea namely, Adolescent Empowerment Programme (AEP) since 2012. In UP, this Adolescent Empowerment Programme supported by IKEA Foundation has been operational since 2015-16 in 511 Gram Panchayats and 694 schools of 21 blocks of 7 districts namely Lucknow, Gorakhpur, Jaunpur, Ghazipur, Maharajganj, Siddharth Nagar and Varanasi. Under this, we worked with a cohort of 1,37,321 adolescents through ‘Taaron Ki Toli (an innovative life skill curriculum)’ sessions. We also worked with 10,189 women, 6,567 men and 4,705 of other stakeholders including PRI members, Front Line Workers, and Teachers.
The programme evocatively calls out, ‘De Taali – Banegi Baat Saath Saath’ (HighFive – Only when we talk to each other, things happen), asking people to support these young lives by:
- Creation of safe spaces in schools and within their own communities
- Gain confidence by acquiring life skills
- Get access to healthcare services, irrespective of their gender
- Receive counselling on gender equity and reproductive rights
- Build an ecosystem in schools and the community in which adolescent voices are heard
Impact of Adolescent Empowerment Programme based on Endline survey results:
- Attitude towards non-acceptance of any form of violence against boys and girls has positively increased by 21% in intervention endline, in comparison to control end line and baseline rounds.
- Adolescent discussion with parents regarding life choices has steadily improved within the intervention areas during the end line, showcasing a 25 % increase over the baseline score.
- Positive attitude towards freedom around communication has more than doubled from baseline (33%) to intervention end line (69%).
- Average score capturing freedom of mobility for girls has witnessed an increase of over 37 % from the baseline (5.17) to that during the end line in intervention areas (7.12).
- Leisure time among boys and girls has also witnessed a substantial increase from the baseline. For the girls, leisure time has increased from 2.97 hours in baseline to 4.16 hours in the end line (40 % increase)
- Steady increase in the average number of years in school from baseline to that in end line intervention, both for boys (5 %) and girls (4 %). Adolescents part of Breakthrough’s AEP have re-joined schools post lockdown in otherwise large dropouts across the country.
Breakthrough is inspired by the end line survey results here in Uttar Pradesh. Through this 5 year long Adolescent Empowerment Program we could make a difference in the lives of several boys and girls and create an environment where education and health are given prevalence. We have seen in the end line results how adolescents could build a dialogue against gender based violence. From Uttar Pradesh, Breakthrough will take the key learnings in other intervention states. The full report will be available online soon.
(Data collected from around 6000 households. Mean Score: Evaluation of adolescents and youth at various ages. 11-14, 15-18, 19-25, 25+)
