Balika Sanghas - Tharuni

“Balika Sanghas” – Girl’s Groups – Girls Get Together to Be Themselves

Tharuni, a NGO in collaboration with UNICEF has facilitated the Formation of Balika Sanghas (Girl’s Groups) in 77 villages in four Blocks in the District of Warangal in Andhra Pradesh, India. The Population of Adolescent Girls in the age group of 11 to 18 years is 11,107 in these 77 villages and 80 Habitations placed in the 4 Blocks of the District Warangal. About Eight Thousand Adolescent Girls from this Population are part of about 400 Balika Sanghas.

Through Balika Sanghas, girls find support to resist gender stereotypes, express themselves freely, take pride in their successes, feel comfortable with their bodies, have confidence, and explore a world of opportunities.

OVER VIEW:

India has one of the fastest growing youth populations in the world, with an estimated 190 million adolescents. Girls below 19 years of age comprise one quarter of India’s rapidly growing population. The majority is out of school and has limited choices available for the future. Girls are caught in the cycle of early marriage, repeated pregnancy and poverty. Still the girl child is an unwelcome commodity in India, forever discriminated against and subordinated in her life cycle as a woman.

An adolescent girl stands at the doorway of adulthood. In that moment, much is decided. If she stays in school, remains healthy, and gains real skills, she will marry later, have fewer and healthier children, and earn an income that she’ll invest back into her family. But if she follows the path laid down by poverty, she’ll leave school and enter marriage. As a girl mother, an unskilled worker, and an uneducated citizen, she’ll miss out on the opportunity to reach her full human potential. And each individual tragedy, multiplied by millions of girls, will contribute to a much larger downward spiral for her nation. Investing in girls is the right thing to do on moral, ethical, and human rights grounds. Perhaps no other segment of society globally faces as much exploitation and injustice, and we owe girls our support as integral, yet overlooked, members of the human family.

Investing in girls is also the smart thing to do. If the 600 million adolescent girls in the developing world today follow the path of school drop-out, early marriage and early childbirth, and vulnerability to sexual violence and HIV/AIDS, then cycles of poverty will only continue.

In a world where gender expectations still play a significant role in defining

young people’s lives and their aspirations for the future, girls’ communities like ‘Balika Sanghas’ help girls build their sense of self and develop their confidence by offering them opportunities to express themselves, be heard, and explore their world in a safe environment.

INTRODUCTION:

Tharuni, a NGO in collaboration with UNICEF has facilitated the Formation of Balika Sanghas (Girl’s Groups) in 77 villages in four Blocks in the District of Warangal in Andhra Pradesh, India. The Population of Adolescent Girls in the age group of 11 to 18 years is 11,107 in these 77 villages and 80 Habitations placed in the 4 Blocks of the District Warangal. About Eight Thousand Adolescent Girls from this Population are part of about 400 Balika Sanghas.

The girls a decade ago had some support from the parents and community as a girl child is treated as ‘Gruha Lakshmi’ (Treasure of the House) and were not subjected to the kind of violence the girls in the recent years are facing. I agree that the girls of the past decade had to face discrimination, restrictions, little opportunities in education, employment, etc. But if you observe in the recent past, the rate of violence on the girls is increasing day by day. This is because, a girl is looked as ‘Commodity’ which can be used by any one any time. You find so much insecurity among the parents of a girl child and they are not wrong. The girls are unable to protect from the ‘bad bad world’ around them from womb to tomb. Only the girls who can assert their rights are able to live in this world.

Girl child is always seen as burden by the parents and family members because of dowry problem. At the same time, she is also seen as the representative to the respect and ‘honour’ of the family. We can see numerous cases in the recent past in the name of honor killings. Best example is a recent incident happened last week in small habitation in Nalgonda District of Andhra Pradesh – An adolescent girl of 16 years of age from a tribal hamlet became pregnant due to some affair. Her parents took her to many hospitals to get her aborted. But doctors refused as she was 7th month pregnant. Then, irate parents started abusing the girl for spoiling the repute of the family. The girl was beaten to death by her parents on the way back home. They left the body on the road and went and brought their neighbours from the hamlet. They all came and taken her body to the hamlet and with knife tore open her stomach and removed the fetus. Later they have performed the last rights for the body of the girl. This shows how the parents and community members can be so cruel to a girl child to protect their family/clan respect/ honour. This horrifying case created no ripples in the state. No one was bothered to comment as every one sees it as a family affair. This shows the callousness of the Government.

Not only this, we see high incidence of violence in love in Andhra Pradesh. Acid attacks, violent lovers cutting throats of girls is a regular affair in newspapers every day. Yesterday a case was decided where a lover tried to attack the girl and killed both the parents of the girl – was convicted for life sentence. This is not the solace for the girl who is left in lurch after losing her parents and with a little sister to look after. The negligence of authorities in focusing the case in proper manner for getting the culprit rightly punished is seen in almost in all cases. It is very heartening to find that in all these cases, the girls are very simple, studious and without any weakness for any sort of attractions. The only wrong they have done is being born as ‘Girl Child’. No one could help or protect them from the attacks – nor the Government machinery or the so called community who always point out their fingers towards a girl child.

But there is some where some hope that we all can combat this violence – yes together we can fight! For this – ‘bringing them together is the only answer!’ We have tried and trying to fight violence together by establishing “GIRL’S GROUPS’ (Balika Sanghams) in Andhra Pradesh pouring confidence in to girls!

We, at Tharuni, in collaboration with UNICEF has facilitated the formation of Balika Sanghas (Girl’s Groups) in 77 villages in four blocks in the district of Warangal in Andhra Pradesh , India . The Population of adolescent girls in the age group of 11 to 18 years is 11,107 in these 77 villages and 80 Habitations placed in the 4 Blocks of the District Warangal. About Eight Thousand adolescent girls from this population are part of about 400 and odd Balika Sanghas. Through Balika Sanghas, girls find support to resist gender stereotypes, express themselves freely, take pride in their successes, feel comfortable with their bodies, have confidence, nip violence at the onset and explore a world of opportunities.

STRATEGIES:

In a village 20 girls belonging to a colony will be motivated to form one Balika Sangha. These 20 girls elect two leaders among themselves.
A preliminary meeting will be held with the mothers of these girls involving community leaders and Anganwadi worker.
The leaders of the Balika Sangha are trained at block level giving them inputs on leadership skills, how to maintain a group and the characteristics of a best sangham.
The girls will meet every fortnight and sit and discuss various issues which are hindering their development. They try to arrive at solutions listing out the priority items.
The girls also have lots of fun during these meetings, they sing, dance, and play sports, read books and gossip. Hence, they wait eagerly for these meetings to happen.
The girls also discuss the social activities which can be taken up for the betterment of the village and accordingly plan their schedules.
Balika Sangha leaders meet at block level and share their experiences, successes and list out the common problems and find suitable solutions.
Competitions are held among the Balika Sanghas in sports and folk arts to encourage them to participate and enhance their self confidence.

OUTCOMES:

Child Marriage and early pregnancies which were rampant in these villages have declined drastically.
The girls with renewed self-confidence and zeal are no more dropping out and are now continuing their education.
The number of Child laborers has come down due to the efforts of Balika Sanghas.
The girls also received trainings in vocational skills and life-skills which helped them regain their self-reliance.
United the girls fought against the problems like lack of infrastructure in schools, transport in villages, better sanitation and incidence of child marriages.

CHALLENGES:

In a place where gender disparity is rooted deeply in the communities, it was very difficult to bring the girls together to form Balika Sanghas.
The mothers were suspicious that their daughters will become spoilt due to these Sanghas and hence used to keep a watch over the meetings.
The girls had to face many kinds of pressures from the family members not to attend Balika Sangha Meetings. They had to convince them to attend the meetings.
It was very difficult for the girls to squeeze time for Balika Sangha meetings from their tight-scheduled household chores.
The girls had to bear the brunt of the elders of the village for stopping a child marriage or mainstreaming a child labour.
Tharuni Coordinators were driven away from the villages by the elders and in most instances girls had to rescue them.
As a Balika Sangha is like a flowing river where new entrants are made while the older girls get married and enter into the ocean of adulthood and leave the village. Hence, it was always a challenge for us to sustain the vigor of Balika Sanghas.

LESSON LEARNT:

The girls in a Balika Sanghas should always belong to one colony or in nearby houses to ensure that they can meet regularly.
Balika Sanghas could not be treated on par with women Self-Help-Groups as no money is involved. Hence, the girls had to struggle for identification.
Not giving due recognition to the activities taken up by the Balika Sangha in the villages by the elders led to disappointment among the girls.
Asserting was the only answer for the girls to get their rights on par with boys.
In a short time, Balika Sanghas proved to be the best platforms for the girls to improve their skills, share and care for each other and gain knowledge and confidence to be self-reliant in their lives.

WAY FORWARD:

As Balika Sanghas most successful intervention to protect and save girl child, government and many other organizations are coming forward to set up such groups in other villages in the state of Andhra Pradesh.
To see that the girls in the Balika Sanghas will be given recognition from the district and state administration for their services.

Conclusion:

Students and adults see girls who participate in girls’ communities as being secure, confident, and serious.

Girls’ interests, aspirations, and feelings of safety are also influenced by their

involvement in girls’ communities. Girls who participate in girls’ communities are also more likely to report feeling safe in their classrooms in school.

significantly, girls who participate in girls’ communities are much more

likely to expect to go to college (81% vs. 65%) than girls who have never participated.

It is important to note grade level, race/ethnicity, and mother’s education affect

significantly girls’