Guidelines for Development and Empowerment of Adolescents through Teen Clubs

The Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS), an autonomous body of the Indian Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, was set up in 1972 for youth aged 13-35 years old to work on the youth aspirations of India. It currently has 500 district level offices, 2.16 lakh village level youth clubs, and 80 lakh rural youth-affiliated groups. The NYKS today prepares over 11,000 youth leaders every year.

Projects of the NKYS include those focused on building knowledge of reproductive health and life skills. The organisation also focuses on advocacy for gender equality and general health. On the basis of continuing efforts for the holistic development of "Generation Next" and past experiences, NYKS published draft guidelines for development and empowerment of adolescents through teen clubs. This document includes formation, structure, and governance of these clubs, including the role of parent advisory committees who, with youth representatives and peer educators, guide and sustain the groups. It defines empowerment as: "...a multi dimensional and multi-disciplinary process by which the inherent or cultivated strengths of individuals are honed along with expansion of their relationships by which they generate and grow power for themselves for making right choices and right designs in their individual lives."

The document points out that adolescents are about one-fifth of the population of India, making India one of the "youngest" countries in demographic terms and challenges. Girls are 47% of the age group. It states that this decline in gender balance calls for special attention to the health and development aspects of young girls. The document advocates for: education - informal and formal; parental care; community care; guidance on healthy choices about personal habits; and access to health institutions, which the country and the society need to create in locations where young people can easily access care.


The document criticises aspects of tradition that disempower women and girls as "the logic of ...poverty... presented and talked about in the community through a logic of bad faith in practice, labelled as tradition". As part of this critique, the document addresses the following issues, a number of which foster the spread of HIV/AIDS: rural parents who do not send girls to school; poor rural education for those who do attend; trafficking of girls and women for sexual abuse or prostitution; adolescent drug use and abuse; and incest and sexual abuse of children in the village community.

Teen clubs are structured to "re-strengthen relationships" within the family, community, and peer groups. As a village-based institution, the club is a forum intended to "provide space, opportunities, and training to the participating adolescents for honing their individual strengths that would help them in generating and growing power for themselves to make right choices in their life, ...[including] life skills for improving their personality to acquire and consolidate certain behaviour/s in protecting oneself against drug abuse, and unsafe sex..." With the intention of preparing the adolescents to enter a youth club after leaving the teen club, the methodology of preparation includes:

1. interaction with peers for improving their social and negotiation skills within and outside the family;
2. creation of a safe space for adolescents to discuss issues that concern them, and to empower them to work together to explore solutions;
3. mentorship of the members through peer educators;
4. access to information on gender, reproductive and sexual health, life skills, career opportunities, and current events;
5. promotion of sensitive, non-judgmental, and confidential health sources for adolescents, including reproductive and sexual health counselling either through direct service delivery or through referral and follow up;
6. informing parents, the community, and society-at-large about the education and values orientation available in the teen club; and
7. providing a community orientation to opportunities for recreation, leisure, artistic and cultural expression, and sports and games.