Safety and Wellbeing of Adolescents and Youth (SWAY)
Project SWAY started in November 2020, with the objective of generating political will, new thought leadership, and a groundswell for the integration of age-appropriate comprehensive education on adolescent health and wellbeing in existing government mechanisms at the state level leading up to political buy-in at the national level.
The grant “Scoping for Expansion of Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) in India” (from November 2020 – October 2023) aimed at empowering adolescents with access to CSE using both the in-school and out-of-school approaches.
The project was implemented in the four states of Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Manipur, and Delhi resulting in the integration of comprehensive sexuality education in existing government mechanisms at the state level. We worked in partnership with government departments such as women and child development and social welfare, education, health and youth affairs, and sports across these states.
WHY COMPREHENSIVE SEXUALITY EDUCATION?
Comprehensive education on adolescent health and wellbeing equips adolescents with knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values that will empower them to: realise their health, well-being, and dignity; develop respectful social and sexual relationships; consider how their choices affect their own well-being and what of others; and, understand and ensure the protection of their rights throughout their lives.
The Government of India (GoI) recognizes that adolescents are highly vulnerable and through the Rashtriya Kishore Swasthya Karykram (RKSK) program, provides information and health services to adolescents related to nutrition, sexual and reproductive health, mental health, injuries and violence, substance abuse, and communicable diseases. Through the more recently launched School Health Program (SHP), GoI is leveraging schools as a platform to establish healthy behaviour among children and adolescents and young people. Through this grant, we are engaging with the government for integrating crucial components of adolescent health and wellbeing in the SHP and integration of out-of-school models through the RKSK.
Key milestones
During the project period we achieved the following:
- In Uttar Pradesh, approx. INR 3,77,43,500 was approved for adolescent reproductive and sexual health components in the Record of Proceeding (ROP) for the year 2022-24, GoUP.
- In Uttar Pradesh, we developed guidelines with the state to establish health clubs in 56,000 schools and Saathiya Corners in 36 inter-colleges across all 18 divisions in the state. We directly supported 10 inter colleges, ensuring a total reach of 20,775 students (11504 Boys and 9271 Girls) to information and counseling on Sexual and Reproductive Health.
- Through the digital learning platform, Educately, 400 Bharat Scouts and Guides (BSGs) in UP – reaching 3,08,224 Scouts and Guides, 50 youth clubs in Jharkhand, and 40 Child-Care Institutions in Manipur were trained on Adolescent Reproductive and Sexual Health.
- Jharkhand State Child Protection Society (JSCPS) approved the integration of CSE to reach out to the most vulnerable adolescents through the existing 24 Child-Care Institutions (CCIs) in the state by training of 42 staff from the CCI as Master Trainer to reach the adolescent in the CCI with access to quality adolescent health and wellbeing information.
- In Manipur, Population Foundation of India signed an MOU with Department of Social Welfare, Government of Manipur in May 2022 to integrate Adolescent Health and Wellbeing in the Child Care Institutions across the state. Staff from 40 CCIs were provided three days residential training as Master Trainers on ARSH Module in April 2023. The training of the Master trainers would enable 520 staff at the CCI and 1000 adolescents in the CCI to receive quality information on SRH.
- In Uttar Pradesh, Department of Health and Family Welfare approved the integration of Adolescent Health and Wellbeing in five districts of UP (Barabanki, Bahraich, Prayagraj, Maharajganj and Sitapur) as a pilot in November 2021 to complement the School Health Programme (SHP). The approval was to integrate Adolescent Health and Wellbeing in 4,250 schools using Population Foundation of India’s digital training program “ARSH for You”.
- Furthermore, we employed Social and Behavior Change Communication (SBCC) frameworks to craft messages and narratives for our CSE campaign, and leveraged SBCC strategies, targeting adolescents and their parents in Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand. Our videos garnered an impressive 23 million views, and our outreach extended to approximately 30 million individuals within and beyond the targeted states. Notably, one of our reels went viral, amassing an astounding 8.9 million organic views, 844k shares, and 373k likes.
- The in-depth assessment conducted under the grant on assessment of the curricula, titled, ‘COMPREHENSIVE SEXUALITY EDUCATION IN INDIA: A REVIEW OF GOVERNMENT AND CIVIL SOCIETY-LED CURRICULA AND STRATEGIES’ has been acknowledged and included in the UNESCO resources on CSE UNESCO resource on CSE .
