Nearly
64 percent of girls in UP marry before reaching the legal
age at marriage. Low age at marriage not only contributes
to the high fertility rate but also to the risks
associated with early childbearing. Childbearing at a
young age also contributes significantly to the infant
mortality rate. An increase in the age at marriage is
possible only when there is a major change in social
values and attitudes towards the girl child.
Services
of advocacy groups such as religious leaders, community
leaders and women’s groups will be used to bring
about changes in the values and attitudes of people,
particularly in rural areas.
Electronic
media will be used to disseminate information on
the legal age at marriage and also on the adverse
consequences of early marriage on the health of
adolescent girls.
Those
marrying before the legal age at marriage will not
be eligible for any government job or for any job
in government-managed organizations.
Registration
of marriages will be made compulsory and panchayats
and urban local bodies will be entrusted with the
responsibility for registering marriages.
Adolescent Education and Family Life
Education
Family life education (FLE) will be
provided to adolescent boys and girls. Family life education
will cover planning for one’s future and the importance
of education, gender roles and responsible parenthood.
Parents will be involved in some of the sessions to encourage
positive parent-child communication.
The Department
of Health and Family Welfare in consultation with
the Department of Education and other stakeholders
will develop curricula appropriate to the cultural
milieu and introduce a FLE programme in secondary
schools and colleges.
NGOs
will be involved in FLE programme implementation
for girls not attending schools, particularly in
urban and rural areas.
Parents
and community leaders will be involved from the
beginning and throughout the implementation of any
adolescent FLE initiative to ensure social support.
Orientation programmes will be organized to encourage
parents to send their adolescents to the programme.
Learning
material appropriate for adolescent boys and girls
on key topics will be generated and made widely
available.
Empowerment of Women
Women bear the entire burden of childbearing
and child rearing. Yet, in most cases, they have very
little say in decisions about their own childbearing,
when to have children, how many children to have, and
whether to use contraceptives. If women had the choice,
many would prefer to have fewer children than what they
actually have. In many families, the role of women is
largely confined to the kitchen and they do not participate
in the process of decision making even on issues of vital
importance to them and other family members. There is
a need for reform to eliminate gender inequalities and
a multi-pronged approach to empower women.
The Government of UP has already initiated
a series of measures in this direction. In several development
programmes such as the Integrated Rural Development Programme,
Training Rural Youth for Self-Employment, Jawahar Rojgar
Yojana, Jawahar Gram Samridhi Yojana and several other
schemes, it has been made compulsory to have 30 to 40
percent women as beneficiaries. Nearly 50 percent of self-help
groups in UP exclusively belong to women. In the three-tier
panchayat system, 33 percent reservations have been made
for women, and as a result, there are currently about
265,764 elected women panchayat members.
33 percent
of all new jobs in the government sector or in organizations
owned and controlled by the government will be reserved
for women
33 percent
of all commercial establishments such as ration
shops, which require government licenses will be
reserved for women
Education,
particularly girl’s education, is important to empower
women. All efforts will be made to universalize
primary education for girls and to retain girls
in schools up to the secondary level. Special campaigns
will be conducted to make the community aware of
the importance of female education
Added
emphasis will be given to formation of self-help
groups exclusively for women, and the groups already
formed will be further strengthened. Non-governmental
organizations with development projects funded by
the government will be encouraged to constitute
self-help groups in their project areas
Women’s
milk cooperatives, currently in operation in 12
districts, will be extended to all districts, and
exclusive women cooperatives will be formed to encourage
participation of women in different economic activities
The strong
bias of the society against girls is manifest in
the preference for sons, and the extreme form of
bias is reflected in the rising tendency of couples
to opt for termination of pregnancies if the foetus
is known to be female. A law has already been enacted
to prevent such heinous practices, and all provisions
of this law will be rigourously and strictly enforced.
Women’s
polytechnics and working women’s hostels will be
opened in major cities in a phased manner to increase
participation of women in secondary and tertiary
sectors
All forms
of gender bias in the provision of services to women
will be eliminated by sensitizing personnel in different
departments, particularly in the health and family
welfare department
Role of Panchayats in Programme Implementation
Panchayats have a constitutional responsibility
for health, family welfare and education activities. Last
year, the state government took active steps to devolve
financial and administrative powers to the panchayats.
It also declared the year 1999-2000 as the year of ‘decentralization’.
During this year, the state transferred the assets and
functions of 12 departments, including family welfare
to these elected bodies. The staff of eight departments
have also been transferred to panchayats and designated
as panchayat development officers. Today there are 61,054
panchayat development officers serving panchayats in UP,
which have a total of 797,554 elected members. Out of
these, 264,754 are women. An amount equal to 4 percent
of state revenue has been devolved to panchayats and 7
percent to urban local bodies. With their vast reach and
influence, panchayats are ideally suited for implementing
the RCH programme at the grassroot level and bringing
about convergence of service delivery at the village level.
The state government recognizes the
overarching role that the panchayats can play in the implementation
of the family welfare programme by converging services
from a host of development departments and by using their
influence to advocate the small family norm and create
demand for services by mobilizing the community. However,
panchayats need to be further strengthened and empowered
to fulfil their role with respect to programme implementation,
supervision and monitoring.
Gram
Pradhans and panchayat members along with panchayat
development officers will undergo training and sensitization
on a continuous basis to orient them to their role
in the RCH programme. They also will be exposed
to the range of services being provided. Beginning
with Gram Pradhans, all members of the Health and
Welfare Committee and women panchayat members will
be trained in the next three years directly or through
distance learning methodology.
Panchayats
will be provided with IEC materials and support
to carry out demand- generation activities and mobilize
community members to avail themselves of immunization,
antenatal care and family planning services
Panchayat
meetings at all levels will begin with the review
of reproductive and child health programme performance
Health
and Welfare Committees of the panchayats would identify
area-specific unmet needs for reproductive health
services and develop village-level plans to provide
these services
Funds
under various development schemes would be utilized
for maintenance of subcentres and for creating village-level
health infrastructure like apna ghar (delivery centres)
by imaginative dovetailing
Panchayats
would be responsible for recording marriages in
addition to births and deaths. This data would be
shared with the grassroot-level workers to help
them provide RCH services, including family planning
Of the
total financial resources allocated to Panchayati
Raj institutions, 10 percent will be earmarked for
performance based disbursement; particularly for
the performance in the areas of reproductive and
child health services and female education
Every
year each zilla, block, and gram panchayat would
be appraised for its contribution to meeting reproductive,
child health and family planning needs, and for
recording marriages, births and deaths. Those panchayats
whose performance best meets clients RCH needs will
be honoured by the Chief Minister and given special
development grants for community assets
