MAMTA has been working at the policy initiatives/ changes with an aim to bring about changes at the state and the national level by demystifying the perspective, concepts and ideas relating to adolescent health and development, sensitising and orienting the key constituents orienting the key constituents involved with policy and programs and facilitating discussion and dialogue between various constituencies.

The need for policy initiatives was felt while conducting the policy review on ‘Adolescent health and development’ in the country context with the support of UNFPA, under the aegis of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. The Planning Commission (Government of India) has considered these policy recommendations as the base document to set-up the Technical Sub committee on Adolescent Health at national level and incorporated some of the recommendations in the Tenth Five Year Plan to address the needs of adolescent boys and girls.

We are now undertaking a ‘National Policy Review of Existing Child Related Policies: Toward a Child Centred Approach to HIV/AIDS’. The main objectives of this child-centred policy examination is to map and review of the existing national and state policies (explicit and implicit) related to children and HIV/AIDS, identification of policy gaps and recommendations for addressing the concerns and needs of children affected and infected by HIV/AIDS with a rights-based perspective and to develop an advocacy plan for the promotion of child related policies. A review of policies and programmes relevant to early marriage and early pregnancy has been carried out in Rajasthan under MacArthur funded implementation project (2002 – 2003). This will form the basis for advocacy efforts and facilitate developing functional strategy in the project area.

Media Advocacy has been an equally important strategy to reach out to policy makers, bureaucrats and the legislators and we have been addressing these issues at regular intervals. We have initiated efforts for convergence of advocacy efforts at the state level being taken up by the network (SRIJAN) partners with that at the central level (through MAMTA).

Advocacy under YRSHR began with establishing and strengthening linkages with key people in leading political parties, ministries of Government of India and media. The highlight of the advocacy initiatives in the first phase was exchange of ideas and updates on young people’s health and development between Swedish Parliamentarians and Indian Parliamentarians.

The Swedish Parliamentarian interacted with about a dozen of senior parliamentarians like Dr. Manmohan Singh and Mr. Prithviraj Chavan of Indian National Congress, Mr. Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Mr. Venkiah Naidu (Party Spokesperson), Mr. Balbir Punj, Mr. Arun Shourie (then Minister for Information & Broadcasting and later Minister for Disinvestments in NDA Government) of Bharatiya Janta Party, Mrs. Chandrakala Pandey and other politburo members of Communist Party of India (Marxist) amongst other prominent leaders. Some of the leaders from CPI (M) showed keen interest in the issue and shared with the Swedish Parliamentarians, the successful model of adolescent education in Kerala. This first in a series of interactions helped MAMTA identify political leaders who are sensitive to the issue and helped in reorganizing its Advocacy strategy.

Few of the achievements during the current phase have been:

Formation of a Young People’s Forum with nation wide representation. This National Young People’s Forum interacted with key policy makers like Mr. Oscar Fernandez of Indian National Congress and voiced their concerns.

Incorporation of young people’s issues in election manifesto of key political parties. Both the leading political parties of India – INC and BJP incorporated issues of young people like rights, education, health and early marriage into their manifesto and committed to further intensify their efforts to address young people.