Key Takeaways of SCALE-Change Group Jan 2010 Meeting

The two-day January 22-23, 2010 CG meeting was facilitated by New Concept with participation of seven district-level CG members and three Ranchi-level CG members as well as the SNC at Jharkhand Mahila Samakhya premises.

In the development of the two-month activity plan for three different groups (Deoghar, Pakur and Ranchi), three location-wise specific activity plans were developed.

(i) Deoghar District Action Plan – The Deoghar activity plan includes specific actions by three CG member organizations (Lok Prerna, Badlao Foundation, and NEEDS) working in collaboration for energizing a core group of youth leaders for outreach among larger youth groups at the community level on building youth understanding on youth policy. With the approach of orientation and capacity building/ training on raising rural youth awareness on the youth policy through rapid needs assessment on livelihoods, education and health issues of youth leading to a district-level workshop for open dialogue between the youth and government representatives. For these processes the TA support may be taken from RH network, PFI, SCALE network etc. the expected outcomes are – feedback on youth policy by youth; demand generation for youth-friendly services by youth; sharing of information on livelihood, education and health issues related to youth by govt. representatives; and understanding on access to services among youth.

(ii) Pakur District Action Plan – The Pakur activity plan with collaborative actions by four CG member organizations (Jharkhand Vikas Parishad, Jan Lok Kalyan Parishad, Saheli Adhyan Kendra, and Lok Swasthya Sewa Kendra) in various blocks of the district focuses on outreach among youth of different marginalized communities (tribal communities like Santhal and Pahariya; and Muslim minority groups). Taking the similar approach of strengthening youth groups as Deoghar, it proposes to reach among 200 rural youth of 20 villages of Pakur through youth meetings and exposure visits in Feb and March (to KGVK and Farmer’s Field School of Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society) for cross-learning and sharing of experiences for catalyzing youth innovations and linking specific health and fertility issues, concerns and challenges of adolescent girls and youth belonging to marginalized minority and tribal communities with definite provisions in the youth policy and delivery of youth-friendly services.

(iii) Ranchi Action Plan – The Ranchi activity plan targets the urban youth of the state capital. It has collaborative actions by two CG member organizations (Solidarity Center and Jharkhand Mahila Samakhya Society) among adolescent girls groups and college students. Within the approach of creating spaces of dialogue among college youth on issues related to youth health and fertility with focus on HTSP through creative use of various media forms (films, documentaries, theatre, painting, youth reporting & debates, etc.) it explores convergence of ideas, opinions and attitudes of two very specific sets of youth in the urban milieu. Additionally, a joint event on the International Women’s Day for integrating voices of urban youth on the youth policy is proposed.  

The CG members prepared a broad list of health-related existing IEC materials available for collective review and use for developing HTSP specific customized communication and advocacy materials under SCALE interventions. This collective exercise helped all the SCALE network stakeholders to jointly identify and understand the vast resources available within Jharkhand that can be adopted and adapted under SCALE.