PROBLEM DESCRIPTION
It is estimated that one in five girls in the world is getting married before the age of 18. When getting married as children, they are more exposed to violence and abuse, and the risk of being infected with HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases increases. As described in the UNICEF report on “Child Marriage”, close to 13% of wives aged 15-19 experience sexual violence at the hands of their husbands.
One in three married children live in India. According to the UN, India is the country with the highest number of child marriages in the world. Of the 223 million girls who married, 102 million were married before the age of 15.
DESCRIPTION OF THE ORGANISATION
Dr Ashok Dyalchand, an ophthalmologist by education, founder of the Institute of Health Management Pachod, has been working for the rights of girls, women and children for over 40 years. In 2019, he received the prestigious World’s Children’s Prize for his work.
During his medical practice, Dr Dyalchand noticed that complications during pregnancy are common in very young women, a consequence of tradition-sanctioned child marriages where the girls got pregnant while they were still children.
The Institute of Health Management Pachod operates in the district of Pachod and in the slums of the city of Pune. The programme for young wives includes home visits, the aim of which is to educate women about their health so that they get pregnant later and extend the breaks between successive pregnancies. In addition, pregnant women benefit from free health checks in their villages, and adolescent girls have the opportunity to participate in so-called “life-skill courses”. During the training courses, teenagers learn about their rights and how to exercise them.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
The Kulczyk Foundation has supported the IHMP by funding the organisation’s activities for girls growing up in the slums of Pune, where the aim is to provide them with sexual reproductive health programme, as well as general health care.
