Plan-It Girls: A Multi-Layered Programming Approach To Adolescent Girls’ Empowerment And Employability

Publication year

2021

Publication Author

Kumar, P., Vyas, A., Narayann, R., Nayak, J., Patra, D.S. & Achyut, P.

While the inclusion of women in formal economy has been recognised globally as a critical driver in determining long-term growth trajectories of economies, India has been observing a declining trend in female labour force participation. This trend corresponds to a rise in secondary school enrolment of girls which shows that conversion of classroom education into employable skills for adolescent girls is pivotal to boost the economic empowerment of women in India.

ICRW’s Plan-It Girls is a multi-level and multi-stakeholder program to build the agency of adolescent girls and promote gender equality to support their aspirations. Over a two-year period, girls in Classes 9 and 11 from 20 secondary schools in Delhi and Jharkhand (Deoghar and Pakur districts) were equipped with a gender perspective and life and employability skills to help them transition from school to work. This process document details the curriculum based and stakeholder engagement activities that the program undertook. This documentation will support practitioners working with adolescent girls to design and implement sustainable programs using the contextualized solutions. It also highlights the challenges and mitigation strategies and learnings from the Plan-It Girls program which will help the readers understand about the factors crucial to program design while formulating similar interventions.

Publication Rights:

The learnings, processes and good practices documented in this publication were collated as part of the program undertaken by ICRW Asia, Plan-It Girls, in partnership with Restless Development and Pravah. The program was supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The facts and information in this report may be reproduced/quoted/cited only for noncommercial use and with appropriate attribution.