Story of Madhurita
Case Study: India
Madhurita, age 21, lives in Rasapulja, a small village on the outskirts of Kolkata with her two elder brothers and her parents. Her hope in the future is to find a job where she can earn enough money to be able to engage in social work which she really enjoys, as she feels that doing so at her parents’ expense as she is at the moment is unfair.
Experiences of being a Peer Educator
Madhurita first got involved by joining one of the groups. She was then selected by a CINI field animator to be a PE. She is now involved in many of the CINI activities, including being one of the coordinating members of the drama team and a member of the youth committee.
Her main activity as a peer educator is to meets with her group of 12 girls every two weeks, where they talk about contraception and other SRH issues. After becoming a PE she actually guides her elder sister, mother and brother’s wife, as she feels herself to be more of an expert in the field.
Community reaction
Her parents were fine with her involvement and some of her school mates were interested. Girls often approach her to ask her questions on SRH issues. Boys however never ask her any questions, because they liked to give out an image of being ‘experts in the field’.
Recommendations for the programme Target group
The main problem Madhurita felt was that the programme at the moment only reaches some young people. She feels that there would be fewer objections from the community if the programme started working with children who are pre-adolescent with drama and cultural activities, and then slowly start incorporating SRH education while informing the parents they were doing so.
Raising Awareness
Madhurita said that the issue of boyfriends pressuring their girlfriends into having sex is something that must be addressed, as if it is kept secret as it is at the moment, it will keep happening. Discussing these issues would help to avoid them in the future.
“When I was told that my parents had wanted to do away with me because in India daughters are a burden, and I was their fourth, I was destroyed. Then I remembered what the Child in Need Institute had taught me about being strong and looking to the future and I thought, ‘So what if I’m a girl?’”.
– Voices from Asia’s youth, from the 2005 Annual Review