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"Adolescents in India: A Profile"
The State of
Adolescents in India
"The only universal definition of adolescence
in India is to mark
it as a period in which a person is no longer a child, and not yet an adult."
The Adolescent
Profile in India
This field visit has also been
envisioned as a response to, and possible extension of,
"Adolescents in India: A Profile", which is an evolving
document published by the UN Inter Agency Working Group on
Population and Development. Among other concerns, the report
stipulates the need for conceptual clarity in defining
"adolescent", a task made difficult due to a lack of
data, as well as a need for collaboration between the UN agencies,
local government, and NGOs in serving the urgent and specific
needs of India’s adolescents.
Ms.
Dutta’s inquiries during this field visit will contribute to a
definition of "adolescent", and Walter Coddington, the
Executive Director of Face to Face International, will discuss,
with local authorities, NGOs and bilateral and multilateral aid
agency representatives, the critical success factors for collaborative ventures.
The Challenge
To address the needs of a group whose very
essence could be characterized as "transitional".
According to the UN "Adolescents in India"
report, adolescents in the age group 10-19 years
of age constitute 21.4 percent of India’s billion-person
population. Although many programs improving the lives of women
and children overlap to include adolescents, few are geared
exclusively to a group that India is even reluctant to identify.
But the specific needs of adolescent girls persist, particularly
if they are not recognized. These issues spawn a wide spectrum,
from nutrition necessities, to maternal mortality, to STDs, to
drug abuse, to literacy, to sanitation, to employment
opportunities.
The Obstacles
The report identifies roadblocks that must
be navigated. Adolescents are not legally independent, the term
"adolescent" is nowhere concisely defined, and raising
awareness among adolescents is ineffectual unless it touches the
community which preserves their status, their roles.
The Goal
A number of the organizations which are doing
something for adolescents have enlarged their objectives from
reproductive health and population development to the total
empowerment of adolescent girls and boys. The UN "Adolescents
in India" report, based on
its findings, advises the Government, the UN system and NGOs to:
"Address adolescents more explicitly. This would also
mean not viewing them merely as assets whose productive and
reproductive potentialities need to be at best tapped and
regulated. Instead, the human development approach needs to be
more strongly articulated."
"Adolescents in India: A Profile"
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