Mukti Organized Awareness Program under Project ACV for Adolescents

Gender sensitization and empowerment programs during adolescence, when gender attitudes are formed, have the potential to diminish gender inequity. Mukti in association with “OAK Foundation”, to support adolescents in identifying, articulating, and sharing their gender-related experiences has organized two such awareness programs, Project ACV (Amplifying Community Voice) on 13^th and 14^th December 2021 at Kuyemuri under Herembogopalpur GP.

Two basic orientation meetings on gender discrimination, social issues and value addition are held on the 13^th with 12 adolescent girls and on 14^th with 15 adolescent boys.

The results of the qualitative analysis provide insights into how adolescents perceive gender discrimination in their families and communities. The majority of expectations for boys revolved around physical labor, while, for girls, gender roles are primarily focused on stopping education early to get married and take care of the household and children. Many of the responses from both boys and girls on privileges/restrictions were related to daughters not being fully educated while sons often were. Furthermore, when comparing between boys and girls (attributes) and understanding superiority, many participants noted there is a clear preference of boys compared to girls. Girls also had a higher proportion of violence codes compared to boys, perhaps because many girls felt they were hit more frequently than boys.

They are interviewed with the help of pretested and semi-structured questionnaires and focus on group discussions are also conducted for qualitative findings. Mukti aims to give adolescents a space to discuss the social and health issues affecting them and build their capacity to become active community members and leaders.

Detailed training on the above-mentioned issues will be provided to these girls and boys by Mukti in near future.