Pathways to Empowerment A Study on the Impact of
TdH-NL’s Initiatives of Married Adolescent Girls’ Empowerment (IMAGE),
Karnataka. 

Initiatives for Married Adolescent Girls’ Empowerment (IMAGE) is a unique intervention focusing on Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) and developmental needs of early married girls (EMGs) on a small scale. The project is implemented by a consortium of 6 civil society organisations in 5 districts of Karnataka, with the financial and technical support of Terre des Hommes – Netherlands (TdH-NL). It covers 3,077 girls who were married before the age of 18 years with the overall objective of ‘Empowering Early Married Girls towards Social and Economic Independence’ in a collective approach Involving Government, CSOs, and Community. With the financial seed funding support of Canterbury Christ Church University (UK), under the Global Challenges Research Fund,  a research consortium comprising Madras School of Social Work, Gonzaga College for Women and TdH-NL, undertook a study in one of the IMAGE project areas examining the levels of attitude and behavioural change. The study aimed to capture the current status of participants’ health and hygiene, SRHR, education, vocational skill development, and income generation activities.

Impacts of this project to date include giving TdH-NL the evidence base to upscale the project into other geographies and developing research skills in the students of Gonzaga college. 

Principal of Gonzaga College talk about the student engagement in the early marriage project.

SDGs addressed