Plan India Sambhav
                     Plan India Sambhav
• Jharkhand, home to 0.73 crore of India’s 24 crore adolescents aged 
between 10 and 19, has the third highest rate of child marriages in the 
country. 38% girls get married before the legal age of 18 years. In 2015, 
Plan India started ‘Sambhav’, an adolescent empowerment programme 
with support from UNICEF for reduction in child marriage and teenage 
pregnancy and increase in secondary education in six blocks of East 
Singhbhum district by 2019. With equal participation of adolescent girls 
and boys as their allies in 942 villages, the scale and the gender-
transformative impact of Sambhav is unprecedented. Sambhav worked 
with 47,000 adolescents between 14–18 years by establishing a girls’ 
and boys’ adolescent group in each village. A youth who showed keen 
interest and leadership skills in each group was then groomed as a peer 
educator (PE) and trained in 10 life-skills modules such as decision 
making, problem solving, financial literacy and child rights.
• The PEs cascaded these trainings down to their youth groups. Sambhav also 
worked to fill gaps in forming and strengthening Child Protection Committees 
(CPCs). Vibrant village and block level CPCs worked in tandem to identify and 
address child protection issues in their regular meetings. Parents were oriented 
and mobilised on child rights issues. Intergenerational dialogues were 
established to spark conversations at panchayat and block-level meetings that 
were pivotal in giving children the opportunity and support needed to voice their 
concerns. Anganwadi Workers (AWWs) and Sahiyas were trained on CPC as well 
as other issues faced by adolescents. Their routine meetings were attended by 
Sambhav team members to drive AWWs to take on the health and nutritional 
issues of the adolescents. Sambhav and its youth champions prevented 40 child 
marriages in 6 months. Coming together of stakeholders has led to self-sustained 
youth empowerment supported by the larger community. Sambhav is now being 
merged with Tejaswini, a programme run by the Government of Jharkhand and 
the World Bank for socioeconomic empowerment of adolescent girls and young 
women. Tejaswini will be based on Sambhav’s learnings and will provide 
sustainability and continuity for the young community leaders shaped by 
Sambhav.
• Highlights
• 22,643 adolescents (14,420 girls) reached through 1,614 
adolescent groups and 1,878 peer educators trained 
• 942 village-level CPCs with 8,241 members, 6 block-level 
CPCs and 42 parents’ groups established 
• 3,562 FLWs, teachers and village-level CPC members 
trained to support vulnerable children and adolescents
https://www.planindia.org