Towards Smoother Navigation from Childhood to Adult World

Passing through the developmental transition between childhood and adulthood, nearly 243 million young boys and girls in the age group of 10-19, confront India with one of its most formidable challenges. The nature and quality of their lives, as well as the country’s future social and economic development, depend largely on how well these adolescents navigate this transition. If they fail and falter, India could lose out on a generation. Nurtured with care, they could prove to be a huge democratic dividend.

UNICEF has collaborated with BBC Media Action and Doordarshan for creative conceptualization and dissemination of this education entertainment series is launching a new trans-media initiative for adolescents on Gender and Empowerment in New Delhi on October 18 to help them go through a smoother transition into the adult world. The initiative seeks to reach out to adolescent boys, girls, their parents and elders using a 360-degree approach to communication.

Its components include a flagship 78-part TV series that will be a coming-of-age drama (AdhaFULL TV series), a 78-episode magazine format radio show (Full On Nikki radio series), IVR-based messaging (with Kaan Khajura Station), IPC toolkit for adolescent clubs comprising of audio-visual interactive stories based the TV show, graphic novels, an interactive activity book and a Mobile Game app for older adolescents on gender stereotyping.

According to UNICEF, the initiative aims to Increase the confidence and competence of Indian adolescents and their parents to negotiate and redefine strategic decision-making within the constraints presented by the social context. It seeks to create a culture of change for the Indian adolescent so that they can break free from social expectations that limit their capacity to make choices through the acquisition of a sense of self and a sense of personal competence.

Another desired objective is to replace cultures of silence, concealment, shame and compromise with confidence and competence and positively influence social norms that promote gender stereotypes and make the adolescents vulnerable to abuse, exploitation, discrimination and violence.

The television series AdhaFull (Half-Full) will begin broadcasting from 21st October 2016 on Doordarshan National from 730 pm to 8 pm on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The narrative revolves around three youngsters, Kitty, Tara and Adrak, who work together to set things right in their small town, solving a new case each week. Each episode sees them encounter issues including underage marriage, sex-selective abortion, stereotyping of women and girls, sexual health, financial dependence, higher education for girls, hygiene and sanitation, drug and alcohol abuse, mental health, and gender-based violence.

A radio discussion show ‘Full-on-Nikki’ runs alongside the television show and covers the same topics. Using drama and discussion, it aims to break the silence surrounding sensitive issues affecting young people, challenge traditions that perpetuate gender stereotypes and boost the ability of teenagers to take action to improve their lives.

A smartphone game and audio content for mobile phones have been developed to complement the TV and radio shows.

“One of the key interventions is to work for community empowerment at the grassroots level through interactive platforms for wide-spread awareness on adolescent empowerment and engaging district level media in the task,” says Deepak Dwivedi of Nagarik Foundation, an NGO that has partnered with UNICEF in the new initiative.

Nagrik Foundation has used innovative digital technology for creating face-to-face interaction from one place to various other places in the country at the same time. “We have used this unique technology to partner with the UNICEF in creating engagement with the media and other stakeholders at the grassroots level on several social issues such as immunization and sanitation in the past and look forward to work on adolescent empowerment in its new initiative,” Dwivedi adds.