As many as 99.2 per cent young girls aged between 13-19 years in Tamil Nadu and 100 per cent of girls in the same group in Chennai are enrolled in an educational institution,” as per the findings of The Teenage Girls (TAG) report-card supported by Mahindra & Mahindra. Tamil Nadu has the fifth largest number of school going teenage girls.
The report was presented by Project Nanhi Kali , an initiative that is close to industrialist Anand Mahindra’s heart, and compiled by Naandi Foundation.
The TAG Report 2018 (the survey was conducted in 2016-17) also ranks Tamil Nadu as the number one State in terms of teenage girls using hygienic menstrual protection.
Chennai tops
Chennai topped the list amongst Indian metros which includes Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi in teenage girls using hygienic menstrual protection.
The TAG report surveyed 74,000 teenage girls in over 600 districts across all 30 States in India to understand the critical data gap relating to young girls and their dreams and aspirations, how dignified and safe they feel and to check whether they have access to education, clean drinking water and sanitation.
Aspire to study
The report also highlighted that 98.5 per cent of teenage girls in Tamil Nadu are unmarried and 86.4 per cent wish to pursue higher studies. 71 per cent of teenage girls in Tamil Nadu also shared that they do not have openly defecate.
“The TAG Report was born out of the realisation that more needs to be done to ensure India’s young girls grow up to be confident, informed, self-reliant, and independent young women. Project Nanhi Kali will leverage these findings to explore new opportunities that will enable these girls to live their aspirations and encourage people to #ListenToHer,” said Manoj Kumar, CEO, Naandi Foundation in a press statement.
Data collection
The survey tool and all the related documents were then translated into 12 languages which was followed by a phase of surveyor training. A women team of 1,000 surveyors handled the data collection.