India Social Case Challenge – Edition 1

Category: Long-term Initiatives

Title-Sapno Ko Chali Chooney: A College Intervention Programme for Women Empowerment

Share a little about your organisation

Jagran Pehel is a part of Shri Puran Chandra Gupta Smarak Trust a non-profit making charitable trust of the Jagran group which is highly committed to social upliftment. It is also the CSR initiative of Jagran Prakashan Ltd., one of the leading media conglomerates in India, with a proven track record of contributing to social development through mass awareness and advocacy campaigns. Pehel, by utilising one of the largest media plexus in the country, is actively involved in awareness generation, advocacy and promotion of social development through innovative means of mass communication.

We partner with multilateral/bilateral agencies, Government and Non Government Organisations to create synergistic effects by building upon the existing strategic approaches of ours and our partners. Our endeavour is to improve the quality of human life by designing and implementing programs that achieve high levels of community education, self-efficiency and positive behavioral change.

Executive Summary

Sapnon Ko Chali Chhoone (SKCC) is a joint initiative of Pehel, UNFPA and Bihar State Women’s Development Corporation, to empower young women enrolled in colleges of Bihar. The programme covered more than 50000 girls in 21 colleges of 6 districts of Bihar. The aim was to build capacities of young women, resulting in women empowerment and reduction of gender disparity in the state.

During the course of six months, 50 talented girls were selected through various competitions and observations as local champions to whom we call “champions of change”. Leadership building cum felicitation workshop organized for these 50 girls, who will further be nurtured as the local champions of change in the phase II of the project.

Background

Our strategic intervention was targeted at 20 girl’s colleges across 6 districts (Ara, Bhagalpur, Gaya, Jehanabad, Muzaffarpur and Patna) of Bihar. The program has the following objectives:

• To promote awareness on gender equity amongst the students and faculty of girls colleges in Bihar (especially girls and women)
• To provide a platform for girls studying at the target colleges to enable them to make strong statements based on their perspectives, experiences and expectations related to gender equality and rights (especially for girls and women)
• To improvise and sustain a process of dialogue and cross-sensitization between girl students of the target colleges and opinion makers in the media
• To provide emerging advocates amongst the students many opportunities to share their views on gender equality and rights with the community at large, and motivate them to be strong change agents in society.

Approach/ Strategy

The project strategy included identifying and enlisting participation of 21 girl’s colleges across 6 districts of Bihar. The selection of colleges and districts was made strategically, depending on socio-demographic indicators and logistical convenience. About two teachers were nominated as nodal officers in every college, who were given the responsibility to support the project within that college. In the process, SKCC aimed at developing the capacities of nodal teachers and institutionalize gender issues in the college activities for sustainability.

Another strategy was to create linkages and involve local stakeholders, like government departments, media and NGOs which could bring them closer to the felt needs and aspirations of girls, while also provide girls with much needed support services and handholding support at the local level.

Finally, strategic selection of discussion themes, resource persons and IEC material was done to promote the objectives of the project. Selected girls were recognized as local champions among media so that they, their parents and peers are encouraged and provide them with continuous support.

The project was for duration of 9 months (6 months, extended to 9) and was implemented by a project management team, especially recruited for this purpose. A total budget of about 59 lakhs was spent, mainly on manpower and coordination. Print space and media support was contributed by JPL.

Stakeholders

Various stakeholders of the program include participating organization (Jagran Pehel, BSWDC and UNFPA), selected colleges, students, teachers, parents, local NGOs, GOs and other agencies working towards women empowerment.

Each of these stakeholders were contacted and visited. Finally a preparatory workshop was organized where roles and responsibilities were discussed and divided and a shared clarity over project strategy and IEC was decided. The project received enthusiastic support from all the stakeholders, many of which participated as resource persons, helped in coordination or implementation at college levels. Many agencies put informative stalls in gender fair, and some of them even came forward to provided support services and handholding opportunities to the selected girls.

About the initiative

1. Enlisting of colleges for the project: From the six districts chosen from the state, 20 colleges were shortlisted for the project, keeping in mind that they were women’s colleges except in few cases. In the process of events, one more college in Patna district was added and it was a good example of amalgamation of boys and girls groups together. Thereafter, individual visit to each college was made to seek support collect relevant information. Nodal officers were selected form amongst the faculty members and a calendar of events was prepared in consultation with them.

2. Orientation workshop for Project management team: An orientation of program management team was organized in July 2009. It was attended by UNFPA, JIMMC representative, Project Management Team SKCC Jagran Pehel team and representatives of I Next and Dainik Jagran from the intervention districts of the project. The idea was to provide management team with basic understanding of gender issues in Indian scenario, the program purpose, implementation process and roles and responsibilities of the members of management team.

3. Orientation cum preparatory workshop of stakeholders of SKCC project: was organized in august 2009. The second workshop saw participation from girls of targeted colleges, selected faculty members (nodal teachers), representatives from concerned government departments: Rural Development, Social Welfare, Human Resource Department, Panchayati Raj Institution, Bihar Education Project, Women Development Corporation, resource persons and CSOs. The first day of the workshop constituted of talks, panel discussion and film show on various themes relating to gender. On the second day, girls were introduced to the program, its activities and format.

4. Gender Fair and competition in the colleges: The two days event was organized in all the 21 colleges, with day one focused on information generation through stalls, AVs, discourses with girls and day two for the essay and poster competitions.

5. Evaluation of competition: The students who participated in the competitions their essay and posters were judged at three levels by the experts and based on that the winners were selected.

6. State level Felicitation of girls: The two days workshop on building the leadership skills of girls and state level felicitation of selected champions of change was done in Patna. Future plans regarding hand-holding support and internship exposure were developed.

Impact – Outcome

In terms of outreach, the project reached:

• 4 universities, 21 colleges, 4 government departments 6 districts.
• 44 nodal teachers, 11 political representatives including Chief Minister, Bihar and Dy. Chief Minister, 3 Vice Chancellors, 14 IAS officers, 4 IPS officers, 39 NGOs, 89 resource persons, 3 Editors In Charge and dozens of journalists from Jagran Next and other newspapers and celebrities like Mahesh Bhatt, Nafisa Ali.
• 50,000 girls reached, of whom 17, 317 registered and as 8,977 participated competition and 50 selected as Champions of Change.
• A cadre of 50 promising young female students was identified and developed as local champions.

Qualitatively, the project provided a platform for girls to express themselves, provided them with much needed opportunity structures and recognized them.

The issues related to gender based discrimination got highlighted in the media and role models for many other girls and parents were recognized. In addition to these, project developed the capacities of stakeholders like teachers, colleges, NGOs etc.

Learnings

The first phase of SKCC provided a unique insight into the experiences and feelings of young girls: how they synthesize facts, deal with harshness of reality, how they negotiate with this reality, and how they relate to incidents that might have taken place elsewhere. This has helped in understanding and appreciating the triggers that can motivate them to be Champions of Change in the community.

The only major challenge faced was the lack of infrastructural facilities in some of the rural colleges , particularly due to higher participation than expected. However, this was solved through active engagement of nodal officers and students themselves.

What Next

Jagran Pehel is currently planning phase II of SKCC in Bihar, where the project will be scaled up to 12 districts and 50 colleges with the support of Bihar Government. Apart from this, we will continue to work with selected champions form phase I by involving girls in community development where they can engage with social issues.

In the second phase, we aim at intensified engagement with the selected champions of change from the phase one, and, also, scale up the program to cover more districts, colleges and students. In a few co-ed colleges of the first phase, it was observed that boys too are ready and willing to talk about gender issues. Therefore, in this phase we will also seek the enlistment of boys in co-ed colleges and provide them with an orientation to gender issues.

Jagran Pehel is also trying the same program to replicate in Uttar Pradesh, with a focus on population stabilization and gender.

Reasoning

SKCC can be termed as best practice case study as it encouraged girls to be the change they want to see. It not only recognized the selected champions of change and increased their sense of self worth, but also encouraged their parents, peers and college faculty to promote women empowerment. The project was unique in terms of the linkages it created between various stakeholders, and continued to enjoy their support till the end. Also, the project had a realistic element of sustainability incorporated in it, where the existing clubs, association and groups in college and teachers were systematically involved to institutionalize such activities.

Credits Strategy

UNFPA and Jagran Pehel

Credits Execution

UNFPA, Jagran Pehel, BSWDC and JPL

Testimonials

Sapnon Ko Chali Chhoney is of course an excellent approach for fulfillment of dreams of girls. Your effect in our college is praiseworthy. Not only girls, even boys were excited and got benefited from your program. – Principal, A.N. College, Patna

I feel great pleasure to acknowledge Jagran Pehel for “ Sapnon ko Chali Chhooney” project, will play a key role in the direction of Women’s Empowerment in the state of Bihar. S.K.M College, Jehanabad became highly motivated in attending this event.
- Dr. Sanjay KumarPRINCIPAL (S.K Mahila College)

I was really pleased to see that Jagran Pehel had organised such a project which motivates the college girls to enhance their talent and given them a stage to show it your idea of publishing about different girls who have done exceptionally good in some specific field inspite of all odds was also a topic to be regarded.- Mr. J. Mishra
Teacher
Sharda Jhunjhunwala Mahila College

Factsheet

Name of the company: Jagran Pehel
Number of Employees: 11 to 50
Category: Not-for-profit institution
Case submitted by: Anand Madhab, National Head, Jagran Pehel
Website: http://www.jagranpehel.in