Shakti

Shakti is the youth engagement program at Eka. We engage with youth from a range of backgrounds including unemployed youth, dropouts from school and college, daily wage earners, college going youth among others. Eka tries to create different forums to engage youth on a range of issues. Some of these forums include the Shakti youth fellowship program where girls participate in a year-long learning process on understanding community development through classroom sessions, field work and internships.

Adolescent girls and boys from a local madarsa, Aishbagh old city of Bhopal participating in a film screening on child sexual abuse. The Child Protection program had a special focus on adolescents and was a part of the Safe City initiative supported by UNICEF, Madhay Pradesh.

Other forums include structured workshops both residential and non-residential on topics related to Media & Communication, Gender, Rights among others. Youth from different backgrounds attend these workshops including feild staff of civil society organizations, movements and youth networks.

Azaad Bol, a 5- week certificate course in Community Media & Journalism was an opportunity to involve youth from communities around building counter narratives and alternative narratives. Following the course, the group has set up their own studio where they practice and apply their learnings from the course.

Azaad Bol is a 5-week certificate course in Community Media & Journalism with a focus on building alter-narratives.

Yuva Shakti facilitators/para-legals provide counseling support to youth in communities. Yuva Shakti counseling unit has emerged as a felt need among young people especially throwing up issues like practice of coercion, mutual consent during sex between young couples, forced abortions, un-monitored use of emergency contraceptives and over the counter drugs to treat reproductive tract infections, including sexually transmitted infections, unwanted pregnancies and sexual assault by partners and other men/boys. Masculinity continues to be a heated area of discussion especially when it impacts both young men and the girls that they interact with.