We have been working in tribal areas for the past 10 years Akot Tehsil of Akola district of Maharashtra state. During this time, we have observed many problems faced by people in tribal areas. Among these, the issues faced by adolescent girls are particularly concerning. These girls can only complete their primary education in their villages. For further education, they need to travel to other places, but due to lack of transportation facilities and parents' opposition to sending them outside the village, their education stops midway, and despite their desire, they cannot pursue further studies.
Since tribal society is predominantly patriarchal, even the girls' opinions are not heard. Additionally, issues like child marriage and young girls eloping with boys occur frequently. Since girls lack a vision for their future, they are unable to see what's best for them. Therefore, we decided to focus on empowering adolescent girls and developing their leadership qualities.
We started a Learning Community program in Januna, a tribal village, to develop leadership qualities among adolescent girls. Under this program, a group of 15 adolescent girls was formed in Januna village. Work is ongoing to develop their leadership skills through training sessions and workshops. This group of 15 girls will work on addressing a issue in their village. They will handle tasks such as gathering necessary information, budgeting for programs, and communicating with Gram Panchayat representatives themselves.
A group of 15 adolescent girls has been created. Appointed 3 mentors including the 2 mentors from tribal community who works closely with these girls. Various training, workshop will be conducted with girls and mentors regarding to strengthen them. Girls will implement the project in their village/community regarding the selected one of the issue in the village. They also do the preparation of the project task like survey, budgeting, implementation of the project. They will also conduct the village meetings, Gram panchayat committee meetings, awareness rallies in the village, wall painting of awareness massages etc. A final report of the impact will be created at the end of the programme.