Adolescent Agents of Social Change

Bangladesh Country Office • Child Protection Section • September 2013

FACTSHEET Adolescents as Agents of Social Change in Bangladesh

the bride’s family paying dowry is still a common practice in Bangladesh although it is illegal. Other reasons for child marriage are poverty, desire to decrease the dowry price, security of girls and sexual harassment (often described in Bangladesh as “eve teasing’), family honour/chastity and lack of empowerment of adolescent girls to negotiate a delay in their marriage.

Issue By definition, adolescents are persons from 10 – 19 years of age (UNICEF SOWC, 2011). In Bangladesh, 1 there are an estimated 30 million adolescent boys and girls between the ages of 10 – 19 which represents 20 per cent of the population – a significant proportion of the population. The situation of adolescent girls in Bangladesh mirrors that of adult women. It is characterized by inequality and subordination within the family and society. This inequality leads to the widespread practice of child marriage, marginalization or exclusion from health, education and economic opportunities and a vulnerability to violence and sexual abuse.

Among households surveyed nationally in 2006, 33.1 per cent of women aged 15-49 were married before their 15th birthday while 74 per cent of women aged 20-49 were married before their 18th birthday.

Approximately 42 per cent of females aged 15-19 were married at the time if the survey. The Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS) 2007 reported that 66 per cent of women aged 20-24 2 were married before age 18 . Bangladesh has one of the highest child marriage prevalence rates in the world. Although the legal age of marriage is 18 for girls and 21 for boys, 33 per cent of adolescent girls are married before the age of 15; and 60 per cent become mothers by the age of 19. Girls are considered eligible for marriage at the onset of menstruation. Boys however become ready for marriage only after several years of adolescence and young adulthood, which is often linked with financial independence.

As adolescent girls enter puberty and their families begin to see them as adults instead of the children they are, their lives become more restrictive. Other practices which exacerbate the situation are sexual harassment by males in their communities when they do go outside or to school. In addition, the practice of 1 2

Child Equity Atlas: Pockets of Social Deprivation in Bangladesh, 2013 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey BDHS 2007

There are many negative effects related to child marriage - an end to a girl’s education, health problems due to excessive household work, quarrels and violence in the husband’s house when the girl cannot understand and of course risk of the girl’s death as well as that of the baby during delivery. In the in-laws’ house, she often lacks status and bargaining power. She is more vulnerable to all forms of abuse, including dowry related violence. The majority of adolescent brides and their families are uninformed or insufficiently informed about reproductive health and contraception. The maternal mortality rate for adolescents is double the national rate. When adolescent girls are pulled out of school, either for marriage or work, their economic and other non-formal educational opportunities are also curtailed.

Action UNICEF, the Government of Bangladesh and partners strive so that adolescents and youth from selected communities act as agents of social change to enhance and facilitate collective action within communities to reduce child labour, early marriage and violence while addressing gender equity in selected locations from within the 20 selected UNDAF districts that also include convergence districts and 30 cities corporations or districts towns.

The signing of the Children Policy 2011 and the Children Act 2013 signified the Government’s recognition of adolescents as a separate population group that deserves prioritised intervention in order to foster individual and national development. UNICEF is supporting this effort by different development partners, with the active support of the government to fully implement the Children Policy in relation to adolescents. This requires a holistic and coordinated development approach with the participation of all stakeholders including adolescents, their families, communities, GOs, NGOs and development partners.

UNICEF is providing technical assistance to Ministry of Women and Children Affairs (MoWCA) to establish an adolescent cluster and continues to provide required support to the cluster to accomplish its main identified tasks.

The goal of the adolescent cluster is to foster a coordinated response to implement the Children Policy 2011 with specific reference to adolescents.

The strategy is to ensure a more coherent, effective and comprehensive response by; 

Strengthening system-wide approaches and responses to addressing adolescent well-being and development

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Enhancing technical capacity to respond to the needs of adolescents through different sectorial responses

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Ensuring greater and effective inter-agency and inter cluster coordination

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Promoting active child participation and community based approaches

necessity of a child development knowledge package in the country.

A entry point is the development of a training package: Child Development: A Child Rights Perspective which imparts knowledge, fosters dialogue and initiates change in relation to supportive attitudes on child development within Bangladeshi communities. Knowledge on child development is being introduced and disseminated to help change perceptions of a ‘child’ and ‘childhood’ in the society through on-going activities so that participant groups recognise and describe key features of physical, emotional and psychological and cognitive development at different stages of childhood focusing on adolescents in Bangladesh. The discussions on child development generate debate on existing perceptions of a child/childhood which in turn contributes to fulfill the country’s political commitment towards the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The training package is used with CBCPC, parents groups, adolescents and youths.

Another area for support is Community Based Child Protection Committees (CBCPC) which are being set up and/or strengthened to facilitate community meetings and dialogues that feature input by a collective and diverse group of community members, including key influential leaders.

CHILD DEVELOPMENT: A Child RIGHTS PERSPECTIVE OUTLINE MODULE 1 – INTRODUCTION & WHO IS A CHILD? Session 1 – Who is a Child?

Session 2 – The Rights of the Child MODULE 2 - GROWTH & DEVELOPMENT OF A CHILD Session 3 – Areas of Growth & Development Session 4 – Stages of Child Development MODULE 3 - ADOLESCENT DEVELOPMENT Session 5 – Adolescent Development–A Time of Transition Session 6 – Adolescent Brain Development & Behavior Session 7 – Adolescent Participation & Development MODULE 4 - CHILD ABUSE, HARMFUL PRACTICES & DEVELOPMENT Session 8 – Child Abuse: Impact on Development Session 9 – Harmful Practices: Impact on Development MODULE 5 - POSITIVE PARENTING/CAREGIVING Session 10 – Parenting & Child Development Session 11 – Positive Parenting Session 12 – Parenting & Adolescents MODULE 6 – CONCLUSION & NEXT STEPS Session 13 - What Have We Learned & What’s Next?

These CBCPCs play a major role in protecting children. Regular meetings are organised and they take protective and preventive measures against early marriage, child labour, children in conflict with the law, gender inequality and violence against children. Orientation sessions on child development, child rights and child protection are organised to improve knowledge and attitudes.

The use of physical and humiliating punishment as a form of discipline is socially and culturally accepted by parents, caregivers and community members and is seen as a way of educating and disciplining the child. It is therefore important to introduce discussion and learning on age appropriate child development and parenting programmes to change the practice of corporal punishment as well as the enactment of protective laws and policies. This reflects the

Community members and adolescents have been supported to further strengthen the communication 2

network and working with adolescents as change agents through the delivery of civic actions supporting community development and protection following a social norm change model. It is hoped that as these foundational community level trainings are rolled out, more and more communities will change and the social norm for child marriage will dissolve and a new norm will emerge. An eventual outcome will be community declarations that the village/ward is “Child Marriage Free”.

community knowledge about child development, parenting skills, understanding and tolerance toward adolescents. Adolescent Clubs are the meeting places where key issues are openly discussed. 

Institutional capacity building of secondary stakeholders: GoB and NGO partners’ active commitment to the ideals of life skills will be enhanced through dynamic participation in training and orientation sessions, and should result in a strengthened knowledge base within institutional structures that ultimately supports the reaching adolescents of Bangladesh as it is believed that acquired training and knowledge will benefit the internal structures of respective agencies. This is organised through the Adolescent Cluster. The Connections programme provides information and life-skills around issues including puberty, growing up, relationships, dating, sexuality, pregnancy prevention, gender rights, alcohol use and parent-to-adolescent communications. The programme covers both the medical aspects of sex, and broader relational aspects such as peer and romantic relationships, love, reproduction, gender rights, HIV, risk taking and peer influence.

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Stipend for income generation activity, civic engagement or personal development is an innovative approach that gives adolescents the opportunity to use their life skills to fulfil socio economic empowerment through stipend for income generation, civic engagement or personal development. Personal ingenuity and drive of the adolescents is a key selection criterion.

Adolescents with disabilities are prioritized for these stipends.

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Sport for Development (S4D) is a relatively recent initiative in Bangladesh to empower and develop life skills and confidence among adolescents through sports and swimming. These are important for a child’s development and play an important role in facilitating the children and adolescents to learn about being part of a group and participating in sports and play in a supportive and protective environment, safe space and clean water. Supporting adolescent girl’s access outdoor sports supports their healthy physical and mental development. These outdoor games increase their visibility in a conservative society and help to break the existing social taboos towards adolescent girl’s participation.

The key strategies of adolescent girls and boys empowerment are as follows: 

Life skills based education (LSBE) to increase knowledge, awareness and active involvement of adolescents in society, especially girls to enhance their capacities in critical thinking, negotiation and decision making and to boost their self-esteem, as issues-based LSBE sessions are facilitated in adolescent centres.

Groups of peer leaders are trained to facilitate these discussions, which enhances their leadership capacity for social action. Adolescents learn through peer-to-peer life skills based education. Building on the Kishori Abhijan or Empowerment of Adolescents Project which started in by the Government, UNICEF and NGOs, UNICEF and partner organizations continue their support to and modelling of Adolescent Clubs. These clubs aim to empower adolescents – especially girls, but also involving boys – to participate meaningfully in decisions that affect their lives and to also become role models for the community and other adolescents. 

Community participation and enabling environment for adolescents enhances widespread community support to change negative social behaviours and norms.

Community involvement is strengthened through the establishment of local support groups with the participation of parents, community influentials and young people. This is done so that adolescents can contribute to the improvement of

RESULT 

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3,000 adolescents, including 2,004 girls, received conditional stipends for income generation (1,800), civic action (750) and personal development (450), thus providing an alternative

to child marriage and empowering them to be agents of change in their communities. 

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Furthermore, 31,487 adolescent girls and boys (exceeding the initial target of 15,000) have been playing a role of active agents of change and contributed to civic engagement in conservative communities through their enrolment in adolescent clubs.

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Some of them have become Community Swim Instructors (320) and teach survival swimming skills to 61,114 boys and girls. This is a significant achievement considering that drowning is now a major cause of child mortality.

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In addition, 1,985 adolescents, including 1,089 girls, are performing in Interactive Popular Theatre shows on issues like Child Marriage and Child Labour in order to stimulate debate and change these harmful social norms and practices.

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All adolescent girls and boys involved in clubs are acting as monitors, and participating in community actions in particular to stop early marriage and prevent school dropout. Research on Adolescent Suicide Ideation has also been completed with specific recommendations formulated to increase dialogue between adolescent girls and their mothers about puberty, sex and reproductive health. In light of these recommendations, Creating Connections Modules for mothers and daughters were translated and field tested, are being rolled out.

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A theory of change and Level 3 Monitoring on the empowerment of adolescents to prevent child marriage is being formulated and a monitoring framework based on this theory is underway by cluster members active in adolescent projects, which includes 33 NGOs and other UN agencies.

Through the Adolescent Cluster, 95 Government and NGO professionals, including 41 female professionals, have been certified as Expert Trainers to change harmful social norms at community level. This is a first step towards communities publicly declaring themselves free of child marriage through adoption of communitybased social declarations. Meanwhile, 20,117 adolescents, including 13,819 females, benefited from Life Skills Based Education and Sport for Development activities.