Learning to Become Citizens: An Empowering Outcome of TASS

The Telangana Aadapillala Samanatva Samakhya  ( TASS – Telangana Adolescent Girls Federation for Gender Equality) is an initiative of the members of the Kishore Balika Sanghams (KBS) or Adolescent Girls’ Committees set up by the Ika Chaalu project. It was established on 24 April 2024 at the express wishes of the girls in the project who wanted to start a state-wide movement to share their learnings on gender and education rights. To date several activities have been conducted under the aegis of this federation. The following is an account of the outcomes of the activities undertaken by TASS till date.

“When children become agents of change, change happens.”

Across villages and mandals, girls who are members of KBS and TASS are increasingly entering public spaces, raising questions, making demands and approaching institutions. Many of these girls are only twelve to fifteen years old.

They are petitioning the Sarpanch, approaching the Depot Manager for more buses, meeting the District Collector, speaking to teachers and police officials, intervening in child marriages and demanding that government programmes respond to their concerns. They are questioning gender discrimination and asking why elected women representatives are replaced by their husbands in Gram Panchayat (elected local government) meetings. They are demanding that boys and girls participate together in public life. They are learning to speak about their rights, and fight for them.

In short, the girls are becoming young citizens who can identify problems, locate responsibility, approach institutions and demand a response. This transformation, dramatic though it is, has not been smooth.

Making the Right to Education a Reality

The struggle for buses is one of the clearest examples of this. Girls travelling long distances to school and college found that unreliable transport was an obstacle to continuing their education. They petitioned the Sarpanch (head of elected local government) and the bus Depot Manager, resulting in buses reaching six villages during school and college timings. In other villages, Gram Panchayats negotiated with auto rickshaw drivers to provide free rides. Similarly, their demand for a room of their own succeeded in six colleges. This request emerged from real life circumstances where they have to undertake long journeys, work before and after college, sometimes go hungry, and the need for a place to rest during menstruation.

The girls have also demanded repairs of roads, better playgrounds, more classrooms and teachers, libraries, books and newspapers. They have petitioned for scholarships to be released on time and for good-quality uniforms and textbooks. What may seem like a list of infrastructure demands is actually a claim to the conditions that make their  participation in education possible. It is a part of the infrastructure of dignity and retention. What was once considered an individual difficulty has now become a public question.

Transformation From the Family to the Gram Panchayat

Parents who initially resisted their daughters' participation in public activities have gradually begun to recognise the value of their participation. One grandmother, moved by her granddaughter's achievement, mortgaged the silver anklet she had worn for years to fund her admission to a Multi-Purpose Health Workers course — a connection to a future she had never imagined. For the entire family, higher education for the girl has become a matter of pride and for the first time, a real possibility.

Girls have also begun interacting with the Gram Panchayat. In Vikarabad, Panchayats have started inviting two KBS representatives to their meetings; the girls immediately asked that two boys be included too, and that they be given advance notice so they could arrange their school commitments. The girls are active participants in these meetings, they raise issues pertaining to their education and are beginning to negotiate the terms on which they participate as citizens. Madanapally panchayat of Vikarabad mandal got an award for conducting a Bal Panchayat (children’s panchayat) in which the KBS girls were actively involved.

The girls are also vocal on the issue of gender equality and women’s political rights and they have found the courage to challenge existing practices that violate these rights. For example, in one Gram Panchayat, the husband of an elected woman member had been attending meetings as her proxy — a practice that has been normalised. The girls asked why he was attending and not her, thus challenging an entrenched practice in which informal male authority had displaced the formal democratic authority of an elected woman. The Sarpanch was compelled to call the woman and ask her to attend herself.[Lv1]  The girls are active participants in the gram panchayats and are beginning to negotiate the terms on which they participate as citizens, thus becoming part of the democratic space.

When Children Become Political Actors

The transformation in the girls can be seen particularly clearly during the Gram Panchayat elections. Initially, the candidates did not take their demands seriously. Not disheartened, the girls brought boys along and presented a collective children's agenda covering schools, infrastructure and teachers' attitudes. After the elections, the same representatives began listening to them with respect.

The girls' demands also show that their understanding of politics is extending beyond conventional “children's issues” or “girls' issues” to timely and increased scholarships, degree colleges in every mandal, greater public investment in education, a Minister exclusively responsible for education, full-day colleges, continuation of polytechnic education and opportunities for lateral entry. They are questioning the ‘The Young India Skills University, Telangana (Public-Private Partnership) Act, 2024”, which would merge all existing public polytechnic institutions with the new University. The girls feared this would lead to the privatisation of polytechnic education, and make it unaffordable and inaccessible. A particularly striking demand is that all government ministries must talk to each other and identify their responsibility towards children and that every department must specify its contribution to the education of children. The girls are beginning to see that children's lives do not fit neatly into departmental boundaries. Education is connected to transport, social welfare, health, safety, nutrition and economic support. The responsibility for children must, therefore, belong to each and every department.

What is a Gender Issue?

When girls petitioned the District Collector about transport, they were told transport was not a gender issue. They disagreed: a missing bus restricts their mobility; a missing scholarship can push a girl towards marriage; the absence of toilets or restrooms affects schoolgirls differently, an unsafe road or inaccessible transport can end a girl's education. They were defining gender equality through the conditions of everyday life — the ability to travel, study, remain in education, participate in public life and access resources. They were expanding the meaning of gender equality beyond the familiar language of violence, marriage and discrimination. In a government meeting, a KBS member asked whether education could really be called free when girls had to pay for transport, when government schools were inadequate and private education was unaffordable. She questioned why the government needed the Kalyana Lakshmi Scheme^[1] when it could instead encourage girls to continue studying and provide scholarships.

This tension surfaced sharply around the government's SNEHA programme – an initiative of the Telangana  government that focuses on adolescent girls in the 15-18 age group. So far, about 6000 ‘Sneha Sanghas’ or groups of adolescent girls have been formed in villages across Telangana to orient them on health awareness, menstrual hygiene, digital literacy , skill training and leadership, along with preventing child marriages, violence and exploitation. They function on the women’s Self Help Group model. Local officials initially preferred to keep the already-organised KBS girls out of their meetings. Their eventual inclusion in a district SNEHA committee is therefore significant. It marks the entry of an independent, questioning group of young citizens onto a state platform.

Girls and Boys: Solidarity

The changing relationship between girls and boys is another important development. Girls have experienced stalking, rude behaviour and sexual harassment from boys while travelling to school, and have not hesitated to complain to the police. Police counselling and patrolling have followed in some places, making the girls feel safer. At the same time, they've chosen not to treat boys purely as adversaries and decided to reach out to them. They can see that some boys are neglecting their studies, dropping out and going to work, joining street-corner groups and using drugs, with consequences for themselves and their families. They feel that boys need education, support and opportunities. In one village, girls arranged mathematics tuition for the boys through the Gram Panchayat after boys said they were failing because they couldn’t stay focused. At the same time, the girls are clear that harmful behaviour towards them is unacceptable.

There is a remarkable maturity in this combination of solidarity and accountability — talking to boys while holding them responsible for their behaviour. The girls are learning that gender equality requires boys and questions of masculinity to be part of the conversation. The change in the boys and their conversations with girls is visible in everyday relationships in some villages. Girls and boys increasingly describe themselves as friends. They study and play together. Girls participate in volleyball and other sports traditionally restricted to boys, including in district and state competitions. Boys who have participated in gender committees from an early age are more conscious of gender discrimination and some even call themselves feminists with pride.

There is still much to be done. Boys are not easily available for meetings. They have short attention spans and can be easily distracted by peer groups that expect them to do what is seen as “male”.

Change in Schools

Perhaps the most revealing evidence of change is what the girls are no longer willing to tolerate in schools. In one school, a teacher insulted girls for poor performance, telling them that if they did not improve they should get married or commit suicide. As they put it: “Earlier girls would accept such insults. No more now!” This time they complained to the Sarpanch. The teacher received a stern warning and corrected his behaviour. The important change is that the girls' threshold of what they will tolerate has changed. Humiliation by an authority figure is now recognised as unacceptable behaviour; the girls know whom to approach to complain and they expect the institution to respond. This is a training in citizenship.

Protecting One Another

The girls' growing agency is especially visible in their interventions around child marriage. Ten years ago child marriages were conducted openly. Fear of the law and of KBS activism gradually pushed them underground, and in recent years they are reported to have become rare in many places, especially in the Ika Chaalu project area. Girls have themselves become part of the protective system , campaigning in villages, contacting Childline and the Child Welfare Committee, and intervening directly to stop marriages. This, combined with social mobilisation, public awareness and sensitisation on gender equality has made the change possible. The girls are learning how to seek protection and, increasingly, how to protect one another.

What Constitutes Success?

When the girls share their experiences it becomes clear that what constitutes success is the capacity to recognise injustice, build solidarity, navigate multiple layers of power, engage with official and non-official actors, persist through resistance and return to the struggle when the first attempt does not succeed. Success and achievement go beyond the number of petitions made, meetings held or children who participated in an action. Often there is no positive response from the authorities for a petition made. For example,  a bus to the village may not be sanctioned  immediately, or a demand for scholarships receives no response and school infrastructure  remains the same in spite of repeated requests. Success is more than a tangible result or a quantifiable number as the more profound outcome is that the girls are learning to navigate a whole social and institutional ecology and different layers of power in the family, peers, boys, community, Panchayat, schools, police, welfare structures, mandal and district officials, and the state. Success is what they become capable of doing.

Each time the girls act collectively, negotiate, persist or return when there is no response they acquire something that cannot be measured by whether a particular demand was accepted. They learn whom to approach, how to speak, how to persuade, when to negotiate, when to insist, how to build alliances and how to move between different layers of power. The processes through which the girls learn to act is therefore as important as the results they obtain. An unsuccessful action can still enlarge a girl’s political repertoire. The outcomes matter, but so does the capacity to continue acting when outcomes do not come easily.

Success Creates New Contests

The story does not end with success. It changes the terrain on which the next struggle takes place. It creates new aspirations, demands and contests that open the next phase of change. Once girls get the bus, the question becomes whether it is timely, safe and adequate. Once they enter the Panchayat, the question becomes what they can influence there. Once they challenge harassment, questions of boys’ behaviour, relationships and gender norms emerge. Once girls remain in education, the question becomes what higher education is available and affordable. Once they acquire confidence, they begin questioning government policy itself. The work of mobilisation is thus unending as every achievement is both an end and a beginning. It makes a previously unimaginable possibility ordinary, even as it generates new possibilities, new expectations and new questions and it strengthens the movement.

^[1] The Kalyana Lakshmi Pathakam is a welfare initiative by the Government of Telangana that provides one-time financial assistance of ₹1,00,116 to support the marriage expenses of resident brides from economically distressed families.

Enough is Enough; Wishing a Happy International Women’s Day to the Girls Fighting for Equality!

By R. Venkat Reddy

National Convener, M. V. Foundation

On March 8, the world celebrates International Women’s Day with great enthusiasm. Governments organize numerous official programs, and speeches flow endlessly. However, there is little attention paid at the local level to girls’ higher education and their safety. Worse still, when it comes to child marriages, some even send signals that violating the law is acceptable. There have been numerous instances where local district child protection officials were intimidated into not intervening in child marriages. Shockingly, even elected representatives have attended such weddings.

Instead of acknowledging that girls have rights and that gender discrimination exists in society, people often side with those violating these rights rather than supporting the affected girls. The policies and laws created for girls by governments and public representatives largely reflect this same mindset. The discrimination and humiliation faced by girls are considered normal and socially acceptable rather than seen as personal indignities or violations of human rights.

The New Generation of Girls is Fighting Back

However, today’s girls are determined to challenge these norms and establish new societal rules based on their rights. Members of girls’ collectives in districts like Ranga Reddy, Suryapet, Vikarabad, Gadwal, and Hyderabad have proven that gender discrimination is neither inevitable nor acceptable.

Not only are girls resisting injustice, but child rights protection platforms, village panchayats, women’s groups, and youth activists have joined forces to stop child marriages. They have confronted and restrained those harassing girls in public places like bus stops. Many individuals who once remained silent have now become allies in the fight for gender equality. Teachers, police officers, and local authorities have also started participating in efforts to uphold girls’ dignity and ensure their educational advancement.

Girls are eagerly waiting for this change in society. Realizing that discussions are happening about their future, they have begun fighting for their rightful place and equal status. They are raising their voices against child labor and demanding their right to education. Defying parental and societal pressures, they are standing up against child marriages. In villages, they have even taken the lead in hoisting the national flag during Independence Day and Republic Day celebrations—an act traditionally dominated by male youth groups.

Their determination to break free from patriarchy and gender discrimination is inspiring. They have shown remarkable courage in standing up to authorities and demanding their rights.

“Enough is Enough” – A Collective for Change

In this context, girls from various villages have come together to form an organization called “Enough is Enough” (Ika Chalu). They conduct meetings and discussions in villages, with each committee comprising 10 to 15 girls. Equipped with proper training, they engage with officials and village leaders to find solutions to their problems.

Their Non-Negotiable Principles, rooted in constitutional rights, include:

• Every child must remain in school until the age of 18.

• Girls must be given equal opportunities as boys in learning and skill development.

• Gender equality should be included as a subject in the curriculum from the first grade.

• Any argument that seeks to control girls’ independence must be rejected.

• Social spaces must be accessible to all children, regardless of gender, caste, religion, or disability.

• Youth organizations should not be divided based on gender.

• No girl should be married before the age of 18, and child marriages should be annulled by amending the 2006 Prohibition of Child Marriage Act.

Demanding Educational Priorities Over Marriage Schemes

These girls are challenging government policies that prioritize marriage over education. They strongly oppose schemes like Kalyana Lakshmi (which provides financial assistance for girls’ weddings) and advocate for a shift towards “Chaduvula Thalli Muddu” (Education is a Mother’s Blessing).

They also fight for:

• Free and reliable public transportation for first-generation female students.

• Timely availability of RTC buses for school and college students.

• Immediate action against discrimination in schools.

• Gender bias in classroom activities being addressed through direct discussions with teachers.

• Revising textbooks that portray gender stereotypes and advocating for equal representation of female authors in school curriculum.

• Ensuring that responsibilities assigned to female teachers are not disproportionately different from those given to male teachers.

Creating Safe Spaces for Girls to Speak Up

The “Enough is Enough” platform provides a safe space for girls to share their experiences of discrimination at home, in school, and in society. It also enables them to think critically about how to bring gender equality into their families, schools, and communities.

Through this platform, girls are gaining confidence to step into public spaces where they were previously unseen, asserting their right to freedom of movement. They help each other map higher education and vocational courses, ensuring that no girl is left behind due to a lack of information or support.

Girls in this movement actively:

• Identify dropouts and encourage them to rejoin school.

• Report issues like sexual harassment, child marriage, and school-related problems to local authorities.

• Organize discussions with police officials about violence and harassment.

Expanding the Movement Across Telangana

As more girls learned about the activities of “Enough is Enough”, the movement expanded to new districts, eventually forming the Telangana Girls’ Equality Federation (TASS).

During the recent TASS State-Level Meeting, girls passed resolutions demanding that the government:

• Allocate 15% of the state budget to education.

• Replace marriage-focused schemes with initiatives that promote higher education.

•  Provide free transportation for all students.

• Immediately fill teacher vacancies and resume stalled scholarships.

• Expand government degree colleges and offer all educational streams in Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas.

• Take responsibility for issuing necessary caste, income, Aadhaar, and birth certificates for students.

•  Extend free midday meals up to intermediate level and establish hostel facilities for girls pursuing higher education.

A Call for Real Commitment to Girls’ Rights

Standing with girls should not be a mere symbolic gesture. It requires strong commitment and ethical political action.

Fighting against gender discrimination and promoting equality must become a core part of governance and policy-making. Only when robust support systems are established for girls will we truly pave the way for a new social order based on justice, equality, and constitutional rights.

Girls have made it clear: “Enough is Enough.” It is time for governments and society to listen.

What’s in a name: Crazy Girls Gang of Thanda

Crazy Girls Gang! How crazy is that? At a meeting with a group of Kishore Balika Sanghams (KBS) or Adolescent Girls Committees from across the project in December 2023, the leader of the first group introduced their KBS as “We are the Crazy Girls Gang of Thanda”. We were both surprised and curious as this was a far cry from the names that the groups had given themselves earlier. Names like Mother Theresa, Rani Laxmi Bai, Savitribai Phule and PV Sindhu - all iconic women who had stood for service, nationalist fervour, education or those who had excelled in sports. But now, from village after village, the groups introduced themselves as ‘Rowdy Girls’, ‘Attitude Queens’, ‘Rising Stars’ and so on, leaving us wanting to know more about this change in mood amongst the adolescent girls in the programme. Where did this energy and attitude come from?

When questioned about these names the responses of the various groups were illustrative. The ‘Rowdy Girls’ group said “Why must boys be labelled as rowdies? We are equal to them and we want to outperform boys”. In the same vein, the ‘Attitude Queens’ explained that girls are generally silent and are not taken seriously. If they had to fight for their rights they needed to have a superior “attitude” like queens.  This was much like other groups that call themselves ‘Princess’, and ‘Veera Vanitha (Empowered Women)’. The KBS that calls itself ‘Rising Stars’ tells us that they have aspirations for education, whereas names like ‘Amulya (precious)’, ‘Ambedkar’ and ‘Lotus’ are all giving a message to society that there is no stopping girls. The ‘Youth Self Committee’ are making a point that girls need to be self-confident and rely only on themselves. Similarly, the ‘Crazy Girls Gang of Thanda’ are iconoclasts in their own way. A thanda is a tribal settlement and all these girls belong to tribal communities that have traditionally been marginalised and excluded from mainstream society. They want to convey that they are inferior to none, they are active and their spirit is limitless. And so, of course, there is also a group that calls itself ‘Freedom’ – they are aiming to respond to injustice and achieve freedom.

These names signify a clear shift in mood and self-perception among the adolescent girls. To understand how this has happened, one has to look at the development of the KBS’s in every village included in the project as well as the supporting activities that are a part of the adolescent girls’ Ika Chaalu programme. The KBS consists of girls aged 11-18 and includes girls both in and out of schools. The groups meet at regular intervals – generally once a month - the field mobilizers are always present and provide them with information and training on gender rights, existing laws and the policies of the State. They are introduced to local bodies like the police, village panchayats, Childline and other relevant institutions. They are sensitised to issues of structural inequities and patriarchal norms and are provided with the tools to address them at every step so that they can move forward towards gender equality and education.

The KBS is also a safe space where the girls share experiences of discrimination at home, in the community and in schools and come up with ideas for how they can make small shifts in the attitude of family members, teachers and the community on gender equality. They are encouraged to draw a map of their village, identifying streets, temples, Anganwadi centres, post offices, schools, gram panchayats, ration shops and other resources available in the village. This is also an occasion for discussing their lack of mobility within the village and marking places that they see as safe and unsafe. Gaining strength from each other, they start venturing out into public spaces that they had never been to before and thus claim their freedom of movement.

Those completing class 10 and secondary school education start mapping/exploring opportunities for higher education and the courses they could opt for. They also take on the task of identifying school dropouts and girls who attend schools irregularly, and start motivating them to get re-enrolled in schools. With time, the girls in the groups have gained the courage to report on issues such as sexual harassment, early marriage, problems in schools, lack of transportation for going to school to Gram Panchayats and Child Rights Protection Forums and seek their support in solving these issues.

During the Pandemic and accompanying lockdowns the KBS’s shifted online. WhatsApp groups became a vehicle for the girls to keep in touch with each other and with the field mobilizers. The lockdown was a difficult time for most families, with lack of work, and shortages of cash and food (See Corona Stories and Why Can’t they Include the History). Girls who were earlier going to school were sent to work in exploitative conditions and some parents started arranging marriages for their daughters. The WhatsApp groups allowed them to share their problems and alert the mobilizers, who could then take action, if there was talk of their own or some other girls’ marriage being arranged.

The girls emerged from the lockdowns with an acute awareness of how easily the hard-won gains of the project in changing gender norms could be reversed and with a realization that it was up to them to not let this happen. With this resolve and renewed confidence, the girls met the Sarpanches (elected heads of local government) to convince them of their need for a dedicated space where they could conduct meetings, start a library, subscribe to a newspaper, buy books for general reading, have a reading room and plan for campaigns on girls’ issues (See Gram Panchayats as Allies).  Some groups conducted local surveys on employment, job opportunities and the educational status of women versus men. In addition, they organized public functions on Independence Day, Republic Day and participated in flag hoisting – activities that were usually undertaken only by boys. There were also groups that conducted programmes along with boys and joined them in sports and games.

On their own initiative, the groups have taken collective action and submitted petitions to authorities for redressal of their grievances, they have held protest demonstrations about the lack of buses to transport them to secondary schools, about the state of toilets and lack of drinking water in schools, the appointment of school teachers, and for stopping sexual harassment on the streets and child marriage. They  have spoken  fearlessly to the police department when taking up specific issues of violence, child marriage and sexual harassment and abuse. They have achieved a measure of success in all these actions. These interactions with functionaries have given them confidence in public speaking, leadership, and interaction with the media.

More recently, the members of the KBSs have decided to consolidate their groups at the State level calling themselves Telangana Aadapillala Samanatva Samakhya  ( TASS – Telangana Adolescent Girls Federation for Gender Equality). Their plan is to become a state-wide movement so they can share their learning on gender and education rights in non-project areas. This is an exciting development and we will track the progress of this movement that has developed organically in future blogs.

What’s in a name indeed? What appears a bit “crazy” at first glance is in fact a reflection of the newfound confidence with which the girls are imbued. It is a loud and clear message that they will do everything in their power to be on par with boys and to be treated as their equals by their families, teachers and the community. These names are the next step on their journey of seeking gender justice and equality.