Youth ke Bol is a youth led coalition in India which aims to advance young people’s access to sexual and reproductive health information and services, as a critical pillar towards their improved quality of life.
Juel, a 23-year-old law student from Ganjam, Odisha, is determined to become an advocate fighting for women’s rights, and proudly says she won’t get married, as it will curtail her freedom. Juel is a youth leader part of Youth ke bol, an initiative which believes that young people realizing their sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and improving access to these services is critical to ensuring their quality of life.
“Education can combat these challenges head-on,” says Juel who organizes “youth addas,” a dynamic platform that brings together young people from the district and gives them a liberating space to speak freely. “Here, we don’t just discuss problems; we find solutions,” she says. The trust built during such meetings has helped create safe spaces to discuss taboo topics like sexuality and menstruation and enable candid discussions.
Similarly, Asheem, a youth leader from Vellore, Tamil Nadu, leverages his experience of working as an HR professional in the private sector to bring together stakeholders such as government officials and other youth leaders to execute interventions. “It’s not just about SRHR, it’s about understanding life holistically,” he says. Asheem recognizes the importance of education and has used his position as a youth leader to organize events that connect college girls in Vellore with sexual healthcare professionals.
Juel and Asheem represent but a few voices of a rapidly growing number of young people who see a clear link between access to Sexual and Reproductive Health information and services and having a good quality of life. An estimated 53% of India’s 1.7 billion population is aged 29 and below, which means the coming decades — and the future of the country — is in their hands. Government policy interventions, often operating at scale, address youth empowerment via pathways of employability, higher education and prevention of early and child marriage.
However, these often underplay the interconnected nature of SRHR and how realizing these rights can help young people lead a life of dignity, giving them agency and freedom. This generation, therefore, needs an enabling environment and a more desirable “quality of life” to succeed.
To bridge this gap and improve young people’s agency, the Youth ke bol coalition was set up in 2021. Dasra facilitates the program with its implementing partners Pravah, Restless Development, the YP Foundation, UNICEF YuWaah, and Yuvaa. Youth ke bol engages young people aged 18-29 in the project states of Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Odisha, Telangana, and Tamil Nadu.
Consultations with young people reveal that they view contraception and SRH as imperative to living a good life and achieving their potential. Youth ke bol spoke to nearly 400 young people who reiterated that SRH and contraception were inextricably linked to their ability to complete their education, pursue a career of their choice, move for work or leisure, and choose whether to work at all; all necessary conditions to ensure a good quality of life.
Young people’s demand for a better quality of life and better future is unsurprising when we consider the data: according to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) 2019-21, only 41% of women (ages 15-49) have received over 10 years of education. Twenty-three percent of girls get married before the age of 18, and 7% of girls between ages 15 and 19 are either pregnant or mothers. For young girls in school, nearly 23 million drop out annually over limited access to menstrual hygiene facilities.
Lack of awareness among communities is a big hurdle. Youth are unaware of contraceptive measures, and those who are aware and want to avail of services and products face steep barriers to accessing them. Geeta laments that access to sanitary pads is an issue, which is why conversations to destigmatize menstruation and promote hygienic practices are vital. Additionally, most programming about contraception is targeted toward women.
NHFS-5 data revealed that over 33% of men believed that contraception was a woman’s responsibility. Challenges remain in de-stigmatizing SRH conversations, with few safe spaces, especially for young men and boys. “Who talks to men about condoms?” is a question frequently posed by YOUTH KE BOL’s youth respondents.
The data supports the need for an initiative like YOUTH KE BOL: when girls complete their higher education, the average age of marriage rises to 23, and they have their first child at 24. Similarly, the fertility rate for a woman (15-49) with 12 years of education is 1.8 compared to 2.8 for a woman who is not educated.
To achieve YOUTH KE BOL’s aims, young people have made the following recommendations:
1. Normalize conversations on sex and family planning, because young people want to be able to have open and honest conversations with their elders, siblings, and friends. Targeted communications (public service announcements, campaigns, etc.) should be aimed at parents, teachers, community leaders, and service providers. Young people want to create an enabling environment where future generations can discuss such topics freely.
2. Destigmatize access to sexual health products and services so that young people can freely purchase contraceptives and other sexual health products, and access gender-sensitized and comprehensive care that takes into account different genders’ lived experiences and needs. Ninety-five percent of respondents said they wished they could confidently buy contraceptives.
3. Mainstream the inclusion of boys and men in Sexual and Reproductive Health conversations to change their perception of SRHR to that of a collective responsibility, so that they contribute toward building more egalitarian relationships and communities.
4. Introduce age-appropriate comprehensive sexuality education (CSE), which can help end stigma, empower young people to make decisions about their own bodies, and help people who may identify differently from the gender they were assigned at birth feel more welcome and secure.
Youth Ke Bol is amplifying youth-created content, creating safe spaces for conversations, and institutionalizing state-based chapters where youth leaders can train and engage with their peers. As of now, the initiative has engaged more than 800,000 young people through digital and in-person activities including listening sessions, open-mics, youth capacity building sessions, etc.,
launched #SwitchTheSoch campaign, a social media campaign aimed at including boys and men in the conversation on SRHR that has reached 5.7 million people, inducted over 45 youth policy champions who are learning about policy and its implementation, and will work with decision-makers within the government system to highlight the need for improved SRH information and services. Youth Ke Bol has also presented youth insights at global forums like the International Conference on Family Planning (2022), FP2030 and G-20 “Health of Youth, Wealth of Nation” event.
“Becoming a Youth Ke Bol leader transformed me in ways I hadn’t anticipated,” says Juel, reflecting on her journey so far. “I have become so confident, I don’t feel scared anymore — I can talk to anyone: the sarpanch, politicians, people from the transgender community, headmasters of schools.” Juel’s transformation is evident from her initiatives: she has pushed for a local college to hold educative sessions with the transgender community, where her persistence overcame reluctance from the college’s administration to hold such events.
When a local school denied her permission to talk about gender equality and menstrual hygiene, she lobbied the local Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) to support her cause, and the event went ahead. Similarly, Asheem too has been able to raise awareness with government decision-makers on Sexual and Reproductive Health by meeting with the district collector, who agreed that young people needed to be more aware of their rights. He is working on implementing a program that connects young people connect with government stakeholders in an institutional setting.
Juel and Asheem’s experiences are just a few of many, and they help establish the need for timely SRHR learning and interventions to secure young people’s future. Both believe that education plays a critical role in securing a good quality of life, and bat for including SRHR learning in school curricula — just like hundreds of Youth Ke Bol leaders who want Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights and Comprehensive Sexual Education at an early age to give them the tools to take control of their lives. Moreover, Juel wants to implement bridge classes in her district to reintegrate young girls who have dropped out of school. “Sexual and Reproductive Health is a right,” says Asheem, “a crucial element that can shape our future.”
To know more about the initiative, you can visit https://10to19community.in/youth-ke-bol/
This article incorporates the insights from youth leaders, partners and team members of the Youth Ke Bol initiative, authored by Kieran Lobo, an independent writer