| Lara
Dutta Visits Adolescent Assistance Projects
.............................................................................................
Wednesday,
January 24, 2001 - Day Three
SLUMS OF
MUMBAI
Lara
Dutta. UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador, Brings Message of Hope to
Adolescent girls and young women in the Thane District of Bombay
Lara
Dutta, UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador and the current Miss Universe,
spent one day visiting and talking with adolescent girls and young
women living in the
Thane District of Bombay, a disadvantaged suburban area of the
city largely bypassed by government programmes. Lara Dutta visited
the Skills Development Centre and a clinic for commercial sex
workers in the slums of Thane City. These two projects are being
supported under the Integrated Population and Development project
in Maharashtra State with financial and technical assistance
provided by UNFPA.
At
the Skills Development Centre in Thane, adolescents and young
women are given skills training in three areas of income
generation – sewing, knitting and beauty care. Once they are
able to earn some money on their own they gain confidence and
respect in their families and communities.
Dr.
Vaishali Anand Deshpanbe, Medical Officer in charge of the local
NGO known as KNAK, which is helping to implement the programme
with the State government, explains the programme: “This project
is comprehensive in that it responds to the total needs of these
girls. Not only do we provide skills development and income
generation potential for school dropouts, but the girls are
informed about reproductive health and family planning services
and how to access them.” Once the girls are earning money, their
status in the family improves as well. “They are becoming agents
of community development,” says Dr. Deshpanbe.
Lara
met with one beneficiary of this project, an attractive 21 year
old named Manisha. Recently married, she knits children’s
clothes from her home and makes around 200 rupees per month in
addition to the salary her husband brings in. The income she makes
has given her a real voice in her family. Manisha is adamant about
controlling her own fertility and not letting her husband or
in-laws decide on when she should become pregnant. “Because of
my training in family life and reproductive health I
now know where to get information and services to regulate
my fertility. We will wait to have children until I can guarantee
their education,” she says emphatically.
“This
programme offers adolescents and young women a chance to be
reintegrated into their community and society as full assertive
and productive members who can also look after their reproductive
health needs,” explains Francois Farah, UNFPA Country
Representative for India.
At
a second stop in Thane, in the red light district of Bhiwandi,
Lara was able to talk with young commercial
sex workers on the
subject of preventing HIV/AIDS and STIs. UNFPA has supported the
establishment of a health clinic in the district, easily
accessible by sex workers, to give them information and counseling
services aimed at increasing their negotiating and
bargaining skills and helping them to prevent STIs and HIV/AIDS,
both of which are on the rise in Maharashtra. The clinic also
provides treatment of reproductive tract infections and counsels
the girls on other health related
matters. Thanks to this project, the use of condoms
has increased dramatically and STIs, including HIV, is
decreasing.
“This
is a special group that has specific reproductive health,
counseling and service needs usually overlooked by local
programmes,” says Francois Farah . “These women, most of them
very young, require adequate programmes to address their
reproductive and sexual health
needs.”
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