World Bank approves $63 million for Tejaswini Project in Jharkhand

The World Bank Board on 21 June 2016 approved the 63 million US dollar project, Tejaswini: Socioeconomic Empowerment of Adolescent Girls and Young Women in Jharkhand. Tejaswini is the first World Bank project in India that is solely focused on the welfare of adolescent girls and young women.  The project will support adolescent girls and young women between the ages of 14 and 24 to

complete their secondary level education. It will also help them to acquire relevant skills for the job market.

Key highlights of the project

• The project will support market-driven skills training, secondary education and broader socio-economic empowerment for adolescent girls and young women in 17 select districts of the state.

• It is expected to benefit about 680000 adolescent girls and young women in the state.

• In the 17 project districts, there are about 2.1 million adolescent girls and young women in the 14-24 age group, of which 13% belong to Scheduled Castes and 25% to Scheduled Tribes.

• The project will intervene at two levels, i.e., at the community and at the institutional level.

• The community-based platforms will hold regular counselling and guidance sessions, life skills education, livelihood support services and more.

• At the institutional level, it will work with partner institutions through performance-based contracts to deliver vocational training, business skills training and non-formal education.

• Life skills education will include four core elements:

(a) Resilience and soft skills: It includes communication and problem-solving skills, goal-setting and techniques to maintain psychological wellbeing through adversity.

(b) Rights and protections: This is related to early marriage, child labour, safe migration, gender-based violence and more.

(c) Health and nutrition: It includes sanitation and hygiene, nutritional habits for self and children and sexual and reproductive health.

(d) Financial literacy: It will help teach numeracy, saving, budgeting and accessing credit and financial institutions.