Empowerment Model for Married Adolescent Girls Yields Results in Karnataka
SDG 5: Gender Equality | SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being
Institutions: Ministry of Women and Child Development | Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
The Initiative for Married Adolescent Girls’ Empowerment (IMAGE) case study, implemented in Karnataka, India, showcases a successful hybrid model for addressing the often-overlooked group of already-married adolescent girls. The pioneering program combined essential service delivery, including education, vocational skill training, and sexual and reproductive health access, with grassroots movement building and sustained advocacy. The program reached 17,532 early married girls and was directly involved in preventing 1,134 child marriages.
The core strategy involved fostering meaningful participation by making the girls themselves co-facilitators and leaders, culminating in the creation of the Karnataka Forum Against Child Marriage. The study highlights that preventing child marriage requires more than legal enforcement; it necessitates community-led, trauma-informed movements supported by the state.
The IMAGE program culminated in the creation of IMAGE Toolkit, which captures the program’s six years of programmatic experience and learnings. It offers practical guidance, strategies, tools, and case studies for policymakers and civil society organizations who wish to adapt or replicate interventions that address child marriage.
The co-creation approach involves shifting the role of early married girls from passive beneficiaries to active participants and leaders in the program’s design, implementation, and evaluation. This means the girls served as co-facilitators, contributed to data collection, and directly influenced the development of the IMAGE Toolkit, ensuring that interventions are trauma-informed, rooted in their lived realities, and enhance community ownership.
This model offers a replicable policy framework for state governments to address the root causes of child marriage by integrating direct welfare services (health and education) with empowerment and advocacy. The case study’s publication on Development Asia, the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) knowledge collaboration platform for the Asia and Pacific region, elevates the model’s credibility and potential for adoption across the region, demonstrating that investing in girls as change agents can drive measurable, systemic change that holds institutions accountable.
Follow the full news here: Tools and Strategies for Empowering Married Adolescent Girls