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Population and Development Education in Adult Literacy Programmes
BACKGROUND
Population and Development Education is a joint project contracted to the Department of Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. of India and United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA).This project is being implemented in the states at three different levels through:
-The School and Non Formal Education Programme.
-The Adult Education programme.
-The Higher Education (College and University) Programme.
In the state of Madhya Pradesh, the project, to be implemented at the school education level is being entrusted to SCERT, Bhopal and the higher education level, the project is with Vikram University Ujjain. Likewise, the State Resource Centre for Adult Education, Indore has been sanctioned to implement the project at the Adult Education level. SRC Indore has been successfully implementing the project since 1989 while it was at its first phase. Ever since, the project has grown through two more phases. Currently the project is almost at the end of its third phase.
GOAL
The project had begun with a primary goal to strengthen the capabilities of the resource agency so as to instrumentalise the integration of Population Education component in the ongoing Adult Literacy programme through its various activities such as development of material, training, outreach activities etc.
COMPONENTS
During the initial years, the project conveyed the following major messages with varying degree of emphasis:-
-Small Family Norm
-Responsible Parenthood
-Right Age of Marriage
-Population Growth and Environment
-Population related Beliefs and Traditions
The international conference on population and development (ICPD) held at Cairo, in the year 1994 made a profound impact on the thinking and approaches towards population issues including population education. The new understanding of population education gave prominence to Reproductive Health and empowerment of women. A need to reconceptualize Population Education to respond to the changing needs was felt/realized. After a substantial amount of time spent on redefining, clarifying and understanding, the post ICPD years witnessed a new paradigm shift in the project. The newly introduced component in addition to the existing areas were recommended to be emphasised during the third phase of the project. These new thrust areas are:
-Gender Equality
-Women's Empowerment
-Reproductive Health
-Adolescent Reproductive and Sexual Health Education.
-Family Life Education.
-Preventive and Curative Education for RTI/STI/HIV/AIDS.
CLIENTELE/TARGET GROUP
Adult non literates as well as neo-literates in 15-35 age group especially in rural areas and urban slums.
COVERAGE
The project activities will cover the whole jurisdiction that comes under SRC, Indore i.e. 25 districts of the state.
PROJECT STRATEGY
Population Education unit already exists at the national level in the Directorate of Adult Education for proper implementation of the project activities through effective co-ordination, networking, evaluation and monitoring. At the state level, the State Directorate of Adult and the State Resource Centre for Adult Education are jointly responsible for proper and effective integration of Population Education at the field level. This is done with active involvement of the Jila Saksharata Samitis at the district level and with community participations to a large extent.
NETWORKING AND LINKAGES
To supplement the efforts of SRC, NGOs, GOs and CBOs are identified and effective co-ordination is maintained at national, state, district, block, panchayat and village level.
MAJOR ACTIVITIES/FUNCTIONS
In order to institutionalize population education in SRC, the following functions are performed as part of the project.
Prepare, produce and circulate both print and non print teaching learning material; materials on population education messages are produced for the Adult Education functionaries and learners. These materials are also revised from time to time on the basis of the feedback received from the field and also on the basis of suggestions made by the Directorate of Adult Education, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and
UNFPA. Informative books, source book, instructor's kit, chart, folder, calendar, cartoon book, educational games, guide book, training manual, poster and other audio-visual material containing spots, songs, plays, nukkad natak, etc. A complete catalogue of all the materials produced under the PE programme is available in the materials section of
SRC.
TRAINING PROGRAMMES
The quality, adequacy and intensity of the training programmes are vital and crucial for the success of any programme. Training of various functionaries involved in literacy programmes and development related activities is conducted from time to time to train them in population related issues and further disseminate the messages related to Population & Development Education. Trainings are conducted for core group members, full timers and research persons of District Literacy Committee responsible for implementing literacy program in the district. In addition to this, aanganwadi workers, members of self-help groups, women PRI members, adolescents are also provided training in population related issues. Adolescents being an important age group with special needs, is currently the main focus of the programme. Training is provided to NGO functionaries, adult education functionaries, aanganwadi workers, peer educators, adolescents in Family Life Education, adolescent health & development and adolescence education.
RESEARCH
Research is undertaken on different issues related to programme management, training, awareness and practices of different category of learners on vital population related themes such as Reproductive & Child Health, adolescent health and development, etc. A brief of the research studies conducted under Population & Development Education is included in the
gist of research studies in
PDF file.
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