Smart Girl program formerly known as EOG (Empowerment of girls) is a unique endeavour of Bharatiya Jain Sanghatana (BJS) that seeks to address issues and concerns related to emotional development of girls (from 8-10 std). The underlying assumption to this program is that girls in the age of 14-18 years are emotionally vulnerable and denied equal opportunities for development as compared to boys in similar age group. Addressing this gender gap will lead to overall development in girls thereby increasing their capacities to take decisions and control over their own lives. The prevailing social environment and increasing reports of violence (physical and verbal) against girls also necessitates implementation of Smart Girls program.
Smart Girl is a simple initiative that was rolled out initially on a pilot basis to evolve the design for the benefit of the girls through community network but it has now grown and expanded its scope and reach to cover all school going girls in 8th-10th std. Over a period of time the program has also been renamed as Smart Girl program from EOG to reflect the change in the outlook of girls who are modern and liberal in thoughts.
The goal of the program is sustainably enhanced young girls’ (from 8-10 std.) capacities to live life with dignity and access equal opportunities through effective life skills education (LSE).
The program framework broadly recommends 6 modules –
for girls consisting of total 10 hours to be delivered as a 2-day workshop. Additional 6th module of 90 mins for parents and 30 mins with girls is also a part of this program where parents are sensitized towards girls needs and together parents and girls are facilitated for bonding well and resolving to spend quality time together.
Smart Girl program follows a Cascaded Training of Trainers (TOT) approach by training identified Master Trainers to train teachers from schools, who then conduct the workshops in the respective schools with the girls. It involves reaching to girls and their parents through liasoning with state/district level government authorities, private school networks decision makers, school principals, and teachers, all of who are also stakeholders in the program.
The Smart Girl program is implemented over a period of 16 weeks as a district – level model in the selected district(s) and is jointly monitored by BJS with support from district level authorities. The monitoring system includes capturing both qualitative and quantitative data for getting insights of the program effectiveness and evolving it further. The program is not resource intensive and could be rolled out easily through existing resources available with the district authorities.
From 2008 till February 2017 total 765 workshops have been conducted by BJS through its private network that benefitted 30,403 girls across the country. In 2015 alone, around 10,000 girls participated in the workshops all across number of states.
Few private networks like Rayat Shikshan Sanstha and Federation of Jain Educational Institutes (FJEI) have expressed a keen interest in Smart Girl program. After an evaluation of a Demo Workshop and Teachers’ Training in January-February 2017, Rayat has created a plan to implement Smart Girl Program in 434 Secondary Schools for 1,59,499 girl students of 8-9-10 standards during 2017-18 by through around 50 Master Trainers and 1600 Smart Girl Trained Teachers. FJEI has gone ahead with Teachers’ Trainings in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Gujarat and hundreds of FJEI school have started conducting Smart Girl workshops on a regular basis.
“Sustainably enhanced young (13-17 years’ age) girls’ capacities to live life with dignity and access equal opportunities through effective life skills education life skills education (LSE).”
There are many definitions of life skills. The World Health Organization (WHO, 1993) defines life skills as “the abilities for adaptive and positive behavior that enables individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life.” WHO (1994) has also identified a core set of life skills for the promotion and well-being of children and adolescents. These are problem solving, decision making (including goal setting), critical thinking, creative thinking (including value clarification), communication skills, interpersonal skills (including assertiveness), self-awareness, empathy, coping with stress and coping with emotions.
Smart Girl program initiates life skills education for secondary schools girls with introduction to the need of self-awareness for decision making, communication skills for interpersonal relations, critical thinking for choices and decisions, and handling of self-esteem for stress and emotional management.
For information about the program, please visit: http://www.mutthafoundation.org