Nil's Projects

Empowering Adolescents

Objective

Identify adolescents' personal aspirations and create space for ownership of personal growth.

Outcome

A non-extractive learning tool for self-realization.

Our Approach

Self-Realisation Tool is a participatory tool piloted by Nil social architects. The tool helps interact with community allowing them to reflect on their needs and capabilities and, in the process, help programs plan, monitor, and evaluate the growth process.

The tool is built in close collaboration with local populations to collect first-hand data from people (in this project’s case; adolescents in the age group of 11-14 years) in understanding the existing social norms and aspirations prevalent around certain themes such as mobility, communication, marriage, education, and health. The tool addresses questions which reveal the level of freedom adolescents have when it comes to making personal decisions under the mentioned themes, and initiates a direct conversation with them.

Using the theoretical constructs of injunctive and descriptive norms and behaviours, adolescents are asked to discuss and write down the community’s general perception on select themes. They also reflect upon their own autonomy and capacity to negotiate their choices in their own context. These choices include discussion of the choice of groom by a girl with her parents or a her plans to postpone marriage so that she can pursue her higher studies in the nearby town.

We then move on to ask about the changes that these adolescents would like to see, which give us an insight into their thought process and their personal aspirations. A list of various steps is noted down which will initiate this change, and put thought into action.

This constant interaction opens doors to a meaningful analysis of personal aspirations. It builds adolescents’ own capacities for examining their circumstances of living, their potentials of navigating through issues, and their problems in executing the desired change. Since the interaction is open, we get a chance to monitor the progress and also take feedback which is then looped into the process of development, making the tool more effective at every step. This approach allows the group to take ownership of their personal aspirations, and increase their decision-making power. It should be noted that Self-Realisation Tool is not an isolated tool, and instead works in a loop of constant feed of data, analysis, and feedback.

Another concern of the programme was the absenteeism in school during post lunch sessions. The school break lasted over an hour that gave children plenty of time to finish lunch and run back to their home which was in the village. Often they would not come back to school in the afternoon session. Since, teachers also went back home for their lunch, there weren’t any planned activities to keep students within school premises during the lunch hour. This affected the attendance during the afternoon session which was a cause of concern for the programme.

This tool is being piloted for an IKEA Foundation project with Breakthrough NGO on empowering adolescent girls and boys in Eastern Uttar Pradesh in India.