Adolescence is the transitional stage from
childhood to adulthood. A confusing time for teens who are going through
physical and psychological changes, which bring up issues of self-identity. At
this time in their lives, most youngsters look for a better understanding on
issues and the right guidance can help them make important choices towards
adulthood.
Sanghmitra is a one year project of the
Centre for Women’s Studies at Goa University, funded by National Mission for
Empowerment of Women, Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of
India. Headed by Dr Shaila Desouza, Principal Investigator and Prachi Prabhu
and Kajal Kerkar, Sanghmitra aims at convergence of schemes and services for
adolescents by involving stakeholders from government and non-government
organisations.
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Sanghmitra – Goa State Coalition for
Reproductive and Social Health of Adolescents recently organised the first Goa
State Adolescent Convention which brought together all the stakeholders –
government bodies, NGOs and civic bodies like COOJ, Positive People, Human
Touch, Jamaat-E-Islami Hind, Sahas, Saad Angan, Empower and Chitrangi, which
received overwhelming response.
“We invited over 450 schools from all
across the state to register for the convention. We were expecting nearly 1000
adolescents but the number was much higher,” says Dr Shaila, who is motivated
to undertake more projects in the future with long term funding for the Centre
for Women’s Studies at Goa University. The adolescents came from villages from
Sattari and Canacona Taluka as well. The day long state convention aimed to
provide a platform to address issues such as living with HIV/AIDS, transgender,
adolescents with special needs, homelessness, living in slums, juvenile
delinquents and adolescents living in homes and closed institutions through
creative expressions.
“Adolescents are a very vulnerable part of
our society and we have to reach out to them by addressing their health issues
and legal rights,” adds Dr Shaila, who is currently involved in research and
teaching Women’s Studies at the PhD and Post graduate levels at the Goa
University. The beauty of the convention was that it didn’t burden young minds
with information, but had interactive sessions to understand what they are
going through.
“We wanted to get across the idea of
equality and acceptance in society. The teenagers had different activities to
express themselves like poster painting, face painting and even suggestion
boxes to ask questions without revealing their identity. A video booth was also
set up by Video Volunteers,” adds Kajal, the project coordinator. A documentary
film on suicide prevention was screened by COOJ Mental Health Organisation
while different institutions put up cultural displays for the convention.
Prachi Prabhu designed the website for
Sanghamitra, ‘www.sanghamitragoa.com’, with the hope that the website will
reach a wider section of the population to educate them about the legal rights
of adolescents like Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act
2012 and even offers blogs and question sessions on the website.
“The convention helped us understand the
issues and we felt that the children were open to ideas and expressed
themselves well. They were surprised as we offered them Mancurad mangoes in
their goodie bags,” concludes Dr Shaila.
