Adolescent girls assert their rights for gender justice and equality.

“Ika Chaalu” - enough is enough. Adolescent girls assert their rights for gender justice and equality.

Ika Chaalu!

Sharirik Hinsa: Ikka Chaalu!

Mansik Hinsa: Ikka Chaalu!

Laingika Hinsa: Ikka Chaalu!

Enough is Enough!

Physical violence: enough is enough

Mental violence: enough is enough

Sexual violence: enough is enough

“Ika Chaalu” has become the rallying cry of adolescent girls in parts of the Indian states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. It is a slogan coined by the girls themselves for a series of workshops organized at the village, district and state levels and attended by activists, policy makers and inspirational figures. They provide a platform where girls can speak up and speak out freely for their rights and shed light on issues of gender justice. When the girls say “Ika Chaalu” they use their voice to explain what they mean: they have had enough of all forms of gender-based violence and the rights-violations that they experience on a daily basis. The girls use this forum to demand access to education until the completion of Secondary School and an end to discrimination in all its forms. These workshops are electrifying events – the sense of empowerment and the clarity with which the girls analyze their situation as they go up to the podium to speak is palpable.

When the M.V. Foundation (MVF) and Charity Fund Rijsholt embarked on a project for adolescent girls in 2014, the main goal was to ensure universal education for girls in the 14-18 age group. MVF’s earlier work included very strong strategies to get all children out of labor and into school, and the project partners believed that the same approach would be useful for the older age-group as well. To start with it was important to document how many adolescent girls lived in the project area, and whether they were in or out of school. MVF staff and volunteers went door-to-door to gather this information. Every adolescent in the project area is now known, furthermore every girl is known, as is her situation - because every girl is important.

Girls’ groups have been formed at village and school levels, and so have “gender committees”- consisting of adolescent boys and girls who come together in a safe space, to dialogue, normalize interaction between boys and girls, foster understanding and enable change. MVF staff are always present to guide these discussions. Adolescents discuss gender issues, share their concerns and problems but also their dreams, and make it ‘normal’ to talk about gender inequalities.

The fact that they are organized in groups makes them stronger, they can support each other and know they have support in actually changing things in their communities, starting first with addressing gender inequalities and injustices within their families.

MVF staff and volunteers – who are a part of the community - speak regularly with parents, teachers, local government and schools to bring the whole community on board. As a result, the attitude within the community towards education and child marriages has significantly changed. The question why adolescent girls should be in school is no longer asked. Instead, there is a consensus that they should not work, nor should they be married, and their place is in school.

Girls who pass 8th and 10th standards, are informed of their options and they are supported in various ways to continue their studies to the next level. When girls are absent or don’t communicate, fellow group-members take action to ensure they don’t drop off the radar. They follow up through the right channels, be it mobilizers, teachers, local government bodies or police.

The structures that have been put in place have made it possible to have an adequate response to the needs of adolescent girls during the COVID-19 lockdown. While the situation is far from ideal, the adolescent groups and the intricate networks created have not disappeared, they have merely shifted online. Parents who had got used to their daughters being in school, were less hesitant to get a smartphone for them to follow online classes. Furthermore, since the adolescents in the project area are now comfortable discussing gender injustice and sensitive issues, they not only have the means but also the vocabulary to continue to reach out and to address their plight.

The girls strengthen their own resolve to fight for their rights and complete their secondary education.

Ika Chaalu: enough is enough is not just a slogan anymore for these girls, not just a rallying cry, but also the basis for action. Girls know it is their right to demand a better future, as well as a better today.

NB: The conventions and group meetings (girls’ groups and gender committees) will start again when the pandemic subsides.

Links:

MVF https://mvfindia.in

Charity Fund Rijsholt https://www.charityfundrijsholt.com

Introducing: The Ika Chaalu Blog

Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, our regular visits to the field have perforce been replaced by online meetings, both with MV Foundation staff who manage different aspects of the project, as well as with field staff who facilitate and implement the project on the ground. While far from ideal, these virtual meetings have helped to keep us informed of progress and new developments in the project and of the coping mechanisms used by the girls and the field staff to keep as much of the project momentum going during lockdown as is possible. The closure of schools and residential hostels, accompanied by the loss of family incomes and livelihoods, has inevitably put pressures on the girls to revert to labour or to get married. Their ability to resist has changed from year one of the pandemic, when they could still hold out hope of things reverting to normal, to year two when the girls often find themselves unable to resist family demands and pressures. However, not all the feedback we get is negative. Amid the hopelessness, there are also stories of extraordinary resilience, cooperation among the girls, of families going to great lengths to ensure that their girls can continue with their education, and of dedication, commitment and creative problem-solving by the field staff. Social media and WhatsApp groups are some of the tools that have used to keep the girls connected to each other. They have provided an invaluable means for field staff to keep track of each and every girl in their project area, much as they would have done on the basis of personal visits in the past, and to respond to issues as they come up.

Our aim in this blog is to record some of the rich online discussions we have had on the project from the start of the pandemic with a view to capturing voices from the field and tracking the ever changing and evolving impact of the pandemic on the girls and their families. The blog will also provide us with a platform where we can highlight the innovative strategies that are used to ensure that every adolescent girl in the project area gets to complete secondary education, and the achievements of the project, both pre- and post-pandemic. We hope, in the process, to create a forum for debate and discussion on issues around gender, education and social norm change.

Above all, the objective of this blog is to go beyond outcomes and document the process that is crucial to seeing how organizations work and the ideas, energy and commitment, and often personal sacrifices, of project staff who make change happen in the field. We hope that this will humanize the project and link it to the efforts of the people on the ground who make it what it is. It will help us to record the memory for subsequent actors to both acknowledge and be inspired by their peers in earlier periods.