Vidyanikethan has been selected as lead NGO for implementing IMAGE – Initiatives for Married Adolescent Girls’ Empowerment, a multi-sectoral programme, funded by Terre des Hommes (TdH)-Netherlands.
Initiatives for Married Adolescent Girls’ Empowerment (IMAGE) is an innovative and integrated project to address the issues of Early Married Girls (EMG) in Karnataka state of India. Funded by Terre des Hommes, Netherlands (TdH-NL), the project is being implemented in 5 selected districts of Bagalkot, Belagavi, Bidar, Chamarajanagara and Chikkaballapur.
Geographic distribution of the IMAGE Project
The project will address the issue of EMGs by primarily working with the girls themselves and through various stakeholders like the families, the community and the government. Most of the interventions fall under ‘Provision’ strategy, followed by ‘Prevention’, and ‘Promotion’. TdH-NL India will take the lead role for the program. Coordination, monitoring and knowledge building are the major roles of TdH-NL. There are 5 field implementing partners each covering 20 villages to reach out to 3,000 EMGs, 2,500 highly vulnerable children, and 20,000 community members.
About TdH-Netherlands
Terre des Hommes-Netherlands envisions a world free of child exploitation. As an international child rights organisation, it aims to improve the quality of life of children who are living in difficult circumstances all over the world, regardless of race, faith and affiliation. Working within the framework of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, it’s mission is to prevent child exploitation, remove children from situations in which they are exploited and makes sure that they can develop themselves in a safe environment. TdH-NL has been involved in helping children living in difficult circumstances through its partner NGOs in India for more than two decades now. TdH-NL has worked among children and families involved in quarry work (stone cutting), matchstick industries, domestic work, textile and garments industries etc. IMAGE is one such project that is being initiated by TdH-NL recently to realize its vision of world free of child exploitation.
Background
With the ambitious aim to support the girl children who are victims of child marriage through the IMAGE project, TdH-NL and its partner NGOs understand that they have taken up a responsibility that could be life changing both for the target girls and at-risk girls population across India. TdH-NL realized that it is necessary to understand the target population, their situation and the status of child marriage at large to ensure the relevancy and the effectiveness of our efforts.
Objectives and Scope of the project
The main purpose of this project is to clearly identify, articulate, and document the existing situation of the 3,000 early marriage adolescent girls and young women besides monitoring and measuring the project results, outcomes and impact. the key objectives of the study are:
- To know the status of each early married adolescent girls and young women to ensure focussed facilitation of services
- To gather specific data and general information on the extent, magnitude and consequences of child marriage, GBV, SRHR, Health & Nutrition, etc
- To understand the socio-economic profile of the girl’s families and to assess their present living conditions and that of their families
- To understand the future aspirations of the children, so as to contribute to our efforts as part of this Project to prevent such violations of children’s rights in target locations
A total of 3000+ girl children were surveyed in 5 blocks in 5 districts of Karnataka.