Abstract
Early adolescent interventions are expected to prepare grounds for positive sexual and reproductive health (SRH) outcomes at later ages. If girls and boys are socialized into believing in and practicing gender equitable norms and attitudes, they would be more likely to change their behaviors, which would lead to making informed choices and engaging in less risky SRH behaviors. This chapter presents one such intervention called Gender Equity Movement in Schools (GEMS) carried out in Mumbai schools among early adolescent girls and boys of ages 12–14 years. Interventions promoting gender equality included structured group education activities (GEA) and school-based campaigns with students of grades VI and VII over 2 years. Girls and boys exposed to the interventions showed much greater improvement in self-reported measures of sexual and reproductive health than those with no interventions. Domain specific analysis of gender attitudes however showed that some areas of gender relations were less likely to change than others. Findings suggest that the gender-focused initiatives must engage children at early ages and also pay special attention to the areas that are difficult to change.
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Notes
- 1.
Measured as attitudes across various domains including appropriateness of partner violence, equal participation in decision-making, and distribution of domestic chores.
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Achyut, P., Bhatla, N., Verma, R. (2015). Questioning Gender Norms to Promote Sexual Reproductive Health Among Early Adolescents: Evidence from a School Program in Mumbai, India. In: Djamba, Y., Kimuna, S. (eds) Gender-Based Violence. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16670-4_9
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