Udaan - Preventing Adolescent Pregnancy in Rajasthan

This programme seeks to improve adolescent sexual health at scale. It adopts a multi sectoral approach to prevent adolescent pregnancy by i) keeping girls in school through cash transfers ii) change attitudes and behaviour towards sexual and reproductive health iii) expand contraceptive method mix choice for young women. We believe that a combined approach to keep girls in school, increase their knowledge and skills when out-of-school, and changing social norms that perpetuate child marriage will yield more benefit than any one single intervention. This model breaks down siloes, layering interventions that go beyond sexual health, combining education, skills development, nutrition and the status of girls in society. The investment focuses on two (possibly three) high-burden districts, demonstrating first before scale-up within four years. The investment has four complementary components: a) Strengthen girl’s motivation by keeping girls in school to prevent early marriage, pregnancy and childbearing. b) Ensure girls have the means to do so – through sex education and youth mobilisation. c) Support pregnant teenagers and young mothers to prevent low birth weight children and break the intergenerational cycle. d) And challenge the community social norms that put girls at risk.