This participatory research project, which was funded by SHLC’s Capacity Development Acceleration Fund, aims to improve adolescent health and to enhance their influence on adolescent health services in Gurugram, Haryana, India.
The project will incorporate the voices and perspectives of marginalised adolescents into the planning and designing of adolescent specific health policies and programmes in India.
Background
Over the past decade, the Government of India has implemented several programmes to improve the quality of life within cities, particularly in relation to health and hygiene. Substantial growth in the number of urban poor in India has highlighted a gap in health inequalities within the population, mainly due to poor living conditions and limited access to good health services.
Adolescents constitute about a fifth of India’s population and as a group experience significant health challenges. Adolescence is a dynamic stage of human growth, marked by distinctive physical, psychological, cognitive and social changes that demand special attention in national development policies, programmes and plans.
The project has three main objectives:
- To enquire, from the perspective of marginalised adolescents, the health needs and health education necessary for transition into healthy adults.
- To examine existing government funded health policies and programmes for the adolescents; this includes identifying the right tools and techniques as well as the right triggers and incentives for engaging the adolescents in the planning, implementation and monitoring of adolescent specific health services.
- To offer practical proposals for national and state policy and programmes, based on existing successful models of engagement and knowledge exchange.
Project Outputs
The project was led by Participatory Research In Asia (PRIA).
This research project ‘Healthy Cities for Adolescents: Participatory Research in Gurugram, Haryana, India’ was funded by the Centre for Sustainable, Healthy and Learning Cities and Neighbourhoods (SHLC)’s Capacity Development Acceleration Fund. SHLC is funded via UK Research and Innovation as part of the UK Government’s Global Challenges Research Fund.