Advocating women's empowerment among the less aware through community reporting

But they were no ordinary reporters.

They were adolescent girls, from various districts of West Bengal, including Murshidabad, Birbhum, Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri, North 24 Parganas and Kolkata, who belonged to the poorer section of the society and had little or no information about rights.

Not only they had limited access to education and health services but were also vulnerable to child labour, trafficking, sexual abuse and child marriage.

The programme titled “Amplifying Girls: Adolescent Girls Write Media Reports on Their Communities”, held at the American Center in Kolkata, acquainted the audience about the girls' journeys in becoming community reporters.

Guided by American activist, Professor Geraldine Forbes of State University of New York Oswego, Jabala trained these young girls to become community reporters, reporting on women's rights.

Jabala trained them to become community reporters to empower them to make their own decisions.

Jabala Founder-Director Baitali Ganguly elaborated on the various aspects of the programme.

At the Kolkata meet, the girls spoke on how sensitive their families and communities were to the issues of women’s empowerment, and also narrated their experiences as they worked through the program.

The girls selected for this program participated in workshops that trained them to collect evidence, story building, writing, and public speaking.

They learned how to collect evidence about incidents that deprive them of their rights like child marriage, trafficking and report on these incidents taking place in their communities.