SBC3 has been appointed by UNICEF Maharashtra to develop SBCC strategy to inform State Action Plan for ending Child Marriage in Maharashtra. As part of the process, divisional Consultations are being held in each of the six administrative divisions of Maharashtra. meets held at District Headquarters. These Consultations bring together all critical stakeholders and are focused events aimed at understating the on-ground issues, challenges and possible directions for solutions. The format of consultation is designed to critically review the existing programs and help understand the barriers to eliminate Early Child Marriage at various levels.
Context setting at the Consultations are done by presentations on the scale of the issues across Maharashtra, challenges in interventions and government programs related to girl child. Stakeholders respond via Panel discussions and planned group activity. This allows for more informed views. Consultations also include elements that may not come from qualitative research. The output from these Consultations will add to the findings from In-depth Interviews and FGDs to help create concepts of Communication models. Thus far, three divisional consultation in Nashik, Mumbai and Pune have been conducted successfully.
