Project UMANG

The main objective of the UMANG programme is to accelerate the decline in the prevalence of child marriage in some of the most resistant, high-prevalence districts in Jharkhand and to empower adolescent girls. In particular, the programme seeks to address the lack of agency and restricted mobility that adolescent girls experience to enhance their aspirations and their ability to act and advocate for themselves in the short as well as long term.

The project works towards the following outcomes:

• Enhanced aspirations of girls to delay marriage, pursue higher education, and seek employment;
• Enhanced agency of girls to negotiate the timing of marriage and choice of partner, as well as to pursue higher education and seek employment;
• Positive shifts in attitudes toward gender and marriage-related norms among girls, boys, parents, and the community; and
• A stronger system related to adolescent issues that is responsive to the needs of adolescent girls.

The project is based on a socioecological approach that recognises that girls, parents, and community members are embedded in a larger normative system and part of key structures and institutions. So, while adolescent girls are placed at the programme's centre, a broader enabling environment for their empowerment is created through multi-layered interventions that operate at individual (adolescent girls), family (parents, siblings), community (men and boys, women, and other community members), and system (schools, local governance structures, and child protection mechanisms) levels.

These interventions are:

Community-level group education and sports: Group education and sports are two components of the UMANG programme designed to enable adolescent girls to recognise and challenge gender inequity and violence, aspire to higher education and employment, and acquire the requisite skills to achieve them. Girls aged 10-14 years and 15-18 years are enlisted and invited through home visits to join community-level group education activities (GEA) with the consent of parents. Groups of adolescent girls are led and facilitated by trained community-based peer educators, and sessions are based on a GEA curriculum developed by the programme. The curriculum contains age-responsive content and activity-based participatory techniques to encourage discussions and reflection on gender inequity and how to change it. Topics covered include identity, gender-based discrimination and violence, assertive communication, goal setting, and resourcefulness. Football coaching and playing sessions for girls were added to the community-level GEA sessions to shift inequitable gender norms and boost agency, mobility, and confidence among girls.

The project also conducted 2-day leadership workshops for girls so they could become leaders and support others like them and confidently participate and voice their concerns in many of the structures and platforms created by the project. During the workshops, various qualities of leadership like sensitivity, self-confidence, logical and critical thinking, inquisitiveness, and self-reliance were covered through activities and games.

For more information, see:

• Enhancing Aspiration of Adolescent Girls: Role of Group Education Activities and Sports [PDF]
• Rising Leaders: Empowering Adolescent Girls in Jharkhand through UMANG's Leadership Training Program [PDF]

School-based activities: The UMANG programme works with the school system to impact the retention of girls in schools and to create a gender-enabling environment in schools so that girls and boys are able to challenge social norms like child marriage. One approach is structured GEA within the school system in which both girls and boys engage in collective critical self-reflection. Teachers are central to the in-school intervention approach. Selected nodal teachers and all headmasters receive structured gender-related trainings based on the UMANG curriculum and are involved in continued discussions on various platforms. The involvement of trained nodal teachers is designed to foster ownership within the system allowing for transformative and sustained change towards gender equality, violence prevention, and a reduction in child marriage.

Engaging men and boys: The findings of UMANG's baseline survey highlighted the central role played by men, particularly fathers, in making key decisions related to their daughters' education and marriage. The UMANG programme, therefore, includes a specific component for men and boys to shift inequitable social norms and improve gender relations, increase the perceived value of the girl child at family and community level, and create enabling and supporting environments for girls' empowerment. The programme developed two strategies to engage men and boys.

• The first strategy included organising yearly workshops at the district, block, and panchayat levels to reflect on masculinity and gender inequality. Participants included local government members, religious leaders, youth, and key community stakeholders. Action plans were prepared during these workshops, including activities for adolescent girls like poster competitions, exhibitions, debates, and flag hoisting and speeches by adolescents on special celebratory days. In addition, activities were planned to celebrate parents who supported their daughters' higher education.
• The second strategy included monthly 60-90 minute discussions with youth. Initial discussions started with youth (19-25 years), but, later on, separate groups were formed for older men. Discussions were based on a curriculum developed and tested by UMANG. The discussions were accompanied by a pledge-signing activity for boys and men to demonstrate publicly their support for gender equality.

For more information, see: Engaging Men and Boys in UMANG [PDF]

Theatre and communication activities: The theatre-based programming consisted of two components:

• Theatre-based communication workshops: Young girls attended workshops where they learned theatre production skills as well other skills such as financial literacy, cyber security, and effective communication. In the workshops, participants produced several skit performances based on their real-life experiences - in particular, the challenges and discrimination they face in their communities/families and how they planned to change these scenarios. These theatrical pieces were then performed in their local villages and government office premises to create awareness and discussion of the issues.
• Community street theatre campaigns: Professional theatre troupes performed in villages to highlight the importance of continuing formal education for girls and the impact of child marriage. An important part of the street theatre shows was a pledge signed by parents that showed their commitment to taking concrete steps to send their daughters to school and/or committing to support their higher education. Theatre campaigns were accompanied by wall paintings and mass media campaigns on FM and AIR radio to reinforce the messages of the street theatre.

For more information, see: Enhancing Aspirations and Social Support for Adolescent Girls through Theatre in UMANG [PDF]

System strengthening: At the system level, UMANG worked with institutions such as schools and local governance structures, including child protection mechanisms and health departments, to create a coordinated and larger response. In particular, the project linked the UMANG intervention to village-level child protection committees (VLCPCs), which are established in each village to deal with the prevention, reporting, and monitoring of issues related to child rights and child protection. The VLCPC is essentially a convergence platform where stakeholders from different government departments, governance structures, and the community come together. In relation to UMANG and its objectives, they have the responsibility and accountability for ensuring that girls do not drop out of school by linking different departmental schemes to support girls with resources like scholarships and other opportunities. Through the UMANG project, the VLCPC structure was strengthened, and the participation of adolescent girls was introduced.  

For more information, see: Village Level Child Protection Committees (VLCPCs) Play a Crucial Role in Shaping the Future of Adolescents [PDF]

As the COVID-19 pandemic happened during the implementation of the UMANG project, some of the activities had to be adjusted to allow for social distancing. In addition, communication activities were adapted to include information and discussions about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccination.

As ICRW explains, "The practice of early marriages of girls and child brides has been a historically prevalent one in India. Despite enforcing the legal prohibition on early marriages, complete eradication of this practice has not been achieved in the country owing to deep rooted social norms and beliefs in communities. Adolescent girls are being forced to give up education and their freedom to become young brides to perpetuate patriarchal norms leading to multiple forms of exploitation and health problems."

In addition, "According to the 2011 census in India, 102 million girls under 18 years of age were married. Nearly half of these girls were married when they were 15 years of age or younger. The social and economic pressure for girls to marry early, parents' intentions to keep their daughters safe and cared for and a lack of alternative economic opportunities all contribute to the perpetuation of child marriage, in opposition to national law.

According to the National Family Health Survey 2015-16, 46.8 percent of girls age 20-24 in Jharkhand were married before age 18. As of January 2018, as many as 26 percent of girls age 12-19 in the region were married and living with their husbands.

Meanwhile, the overall literacy of girls and women in Jharkhand is less than 50 percent in the districts where child marriage is the most prevalent. Due to the high levels of illiteracy and low levels of agency, a significant number of girls in these districts endure high risk pregnancies when they themselves are children. In Deoghar, 30 percent of the girls age 15-19 were either pregnant or had already become mothers at the time of the national survey. In other districts, the percentage of child mothers ranged from 14-20. For many of the girls and women in the region, they also face high rates of severe anemia."

The following baseline studies were conducted to inform the programme design:  

• Raising Her Voice: Agency and Aspirations of Adolescent Girls on Marriage - Evidence from Jharkhand, India [PDF] - This research report presents findings from the UMANG programme's baseline survey on marriage practices among adolescent girls aged 15-18 years and their aspirations and role in decision-making with respect to their marriage. The report also identifies risk and protective factors for early, child, and forced marriage and discusses programmatic implications.
• Dare To Dream: Educational Aspirations of Adolescent Girls - Evidence from Jharkhand, India [PDF] - This research report presents the education status and aspirations of adolescent girls in Godda, Jamtara, and Sahibganj districts of Jharkhand. It also examines the protective factors and barriers to their education and aspirations, as well as the programmatic implications of the former.