Youth & Inclusive Citizenship: Opportunities and Challenges in

India Azad Foundation

The context

• India is home to world’s second largest Population ( 1.2Billion)

• Population of women 614 million. • Youthful nation with 0-25 of age makes 50% of total

population and 65% are below the age of 35.• Close to 200 million women are subjected to violence.• India has the lowest female participation rate, with

only 29% of women over the age of 15 working. • The proportion of working women in urban areas has

increased from 11.9% in 2001 to 15.4% in 2011 (NSSO)

Challenges for Young Women

• Access to education, in particular quality education.

• Invisibility and lack of identity in families and society at large.

• Unequal access to information, limiting the dreams and vision.

• Breaking class, caste and gender based discrimination.

Azad Foundation: Livelihoods with Dignity

• Azad Foundation was established in 2008 to work on livelihoods with dignity for resource poor and marginalized women.

• Azad Foundation works with young women to train them to become professional chauffeurs through our signature women on wheels (WoW) programme.

• 6-8 month of training which include skills development, Personal growth and Women’s empowerment through 14 modules.

Azad works on • Young women’s right to earn remunerative livelihoods

with dignity and breaking gender stereotypes. • Equipping them not just with technical skills but self

development and empowerment as a women. • Some of the key focus areas are enhancing

leadership , choice based identity and sense of collective.

• Enhanced socio-political consciousness and challenging processes that are disempowering for women.

• Helping women to understand sexuality and relationships, dealing with its complexities.

Women

in Action

What have been achieved • More then 100 women are empowered

chauffer's and principal bread winners in their families.

• Socially visible, creating their own identity and key decision makers in their families.

• Strong collective of young women who are ready to support each other.

• Women drivers in public transport - Reclaiming public spaces and making them safe for women.

The enablers for engaging with youth for Inclusive citizenship

• Creating youth platforms where young women can share views, seek information and be exposed to a wide range of issues.

• Opportunities to connect with various other networks , platforms, through learning journeys.

• Enabling community learning opportunities for more women to engage with issues of citizenry and rights.

• Active participation in various campaign such as OBR , and 16 days activism and other social movements.

Role Young Women can play ….

• Take initiative in participating in various platform.

• Share ideas , taking responsibilities to implement them.

• Organize themselves and creating learning environment.

• Challenging and changing stereotypes