Youth get important lessons through Digital Tools in Odisha
Adolescence is a crucial phase in life, marked by rapid physical and psychological changes, making it imperative to equip young minds with accurate information to make informed decisions about their health. Digital communication is a powerful tool, especially for a tech-savvy generation. Adolescents, often familiar with digital technologies, can benefit from targeted content on smartphones, social media platforms, and other digital channels. Behaviours developed during adolescence significantly influence long-term health outcomes.
Aveti Learning and Piramal Swasthya team in Odisha, joined forces on this pilot project to develop audio visual tools to spread two key issues affecting adolescent groups in Odisha, namely — Anaemia and Child Marriage. The aim of this initiative is to develop educative audio-visual aids that is impactful while at the same time conveys the critical messages for the target group. The selected topics for the pilot include Adolescent Anaemia and Prevention of Child Marriage.
Animated audio-visual tool has bene developed on two sensitive topics and piloted in Rayagada district.
· Bijayini Sumi (Adolescent Anaemia) — 16 min
· Sumira Bijaya Gatha (Early Marriage) — 22 min
“The topics are most relevant for the children and the audio visual content helped them to understand the message. This sort of program should be carried out in all the schools and students will greatly benefit out of this awareness.”
— Bikram Keshari Pal, OAV Kashipur
Audio visual content on the two critical adolescent health issues was effective to convey the message in a simple and effective manner. The innovative alliance between Aveti Learning and Piramal Swasthya shows the immense potential of digital tools to spread the key messages regarding adolescent health. Through the fusion of technology and education, this collaborative effort demonstrated the effectiveness of the content, clarity of message and perceived improvement in knowledge gap among the intended audience.
A pilot test was carried out in 6 Schools in Kashipur block, Rayagada District during March - April 2024 which covered 507 students out of which 71% were girl students The test shows a positive change between the pre and post test results signifying considerable improvement in understanding among the youth on the two critical topics of anaemia and early marriage. Audio visual content on the two critical adolescent health issues was widely and accepted and effective to convey the message in a simple and effective manger. Similar kind of audio-visual content should be developed for other key topics such as — nutrition and food habits, menstruation, health care, communicable diseases, mental wellness, avoiding substance abuse, etc.
“The story of Sumi in the two video is etched in my memory. I am now consious of the consequences of Anemia and will always take healthy food and also encourage my friends for the same. I am happy to attend this screening of the two video.”
— Sanskriti Sahoo, Govt. High School, Tikiri
Experience from this pilot effort is promising and shows the potential of digital tools to widely disseminate key messages among the youth through a cost effective and effective manner.These two tools is now being translated to Assamese and other Indian languages for wider dissemination of these critical messages.
We never thought how harmful child marriage can be, though it is happening around us often. Now I am alarmed and will try to stop it whenever I see it. — Basanti Majhi, Dangasil High School, Dangasil
