Context: Need and Idea
India has the largest adolescent population in the world.
India stands to benefit socially, politically and economically if this large number of adolescents are safe, healthy, educated and equipped with information & life skills to support the country’s continued development
- UNICEF [source]
Over the past two decades, India has made tremendous progress when it comes to addressing socio-economic concerns at scale.
The digital public infrastructure approach, which was at the forefront of India's G20 presidency, has unlocked inclusive development across sectors (payments, education, health and beyond) powered by grassroots community innovation. Our people have more equitable access to resources and opportunities than ever before.
This is why, when it was discovered that, today, every 90 minutes a teenager tries committing suicide in India [source], it left us reeling.
Of course, being one of the most populous countries in the world, means that our numbers will look higher, simply because we have many more numbers to report. And the odds have always been stacked against us due to our unique demographic and geographic conditions.
Still, being home to the world's largest adolescent population means that we will have a higher share of responsibility in ensuring that we are able to raise them well, despite the turbulence of the times they have been born in.
Our children will be our most crucial contribution to the world.
So how come, despite having a plethora of national as well as local organisations and individuals working tirelessly to solve for the largest adolescent population in the world, our children are still struggling?
After conversations with 20+ stakeholders in this field across NGOs, police stations, lawyers, think tanks, teachers, child-therapists, and parents, a common thread started to emerge:
Organisations were constrained by their funding resources and human capacity to reach scale despite their best intentions.
Local languages and on-ground presence were a barrier for both individual professionals and organisations to reach last mile children
Stiff resistance from intermediaries such as parents, schools, or shelter-home guardians, due to their social conditioning made it near impossible to address children who may be facing life-harming situations in silence.
Losing their individual identity through merging with a central solution or being sidelined in case they decide to opt out made it a lose-lose situation for their own unique niche.
Children were also feeling lost despite the help theoretically available for them:
Out of the multiple organisations and individuals, they were unsure who to reach out to in times of crisis. The burden of knowledge - of knowing exactly what to do - was high
The uncertainty and unpredictability that followed if they have to call a helpline without knowing who was on the other end or what would happen next deterred many children from speaking out
Providing details such as name, address, phone number only made them feel more scared or shy or ashamed in fear of being reprimanded
Large dependence on socio-economic resources (money, time, travel) to access physical support touch-points or providing aadhaar card details for e-filling, effectively ensured that they could never speak out against abuse perpetrated by those closest to them.
This made us wonder, is there some infrastructure we can build, that would help address these issues at scale and bridge the gap between India's children and Her plethora of resources?
An ideal solution would be one that:
Allows licensed child therapists and registered NGOs to reach children in even the most remote corners of the country without dependence on funding or human resources, necessity to know the local language or fear of losing their their unique identity
Empowers children to directly access resources (related to their mental strength, emotional well-being and physical safety), without dependence on socio-economic resources, through simplified optionality of trusted sources with high predictability.
This is what Bharat Bal Setu is building for India.
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