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The national civil society consultation on Adolescent constituency for 12th five year plan was held on the 30th November 2010, under the aegis of Swaasthya, CHETNA and Smile Foundation. There was a clear cut diversity represented in the adolescent consultation. The consultation covered diversity, geographically, thematically and in terms of a diverse composition of participants (layering of participants: Panelists with technical voice, CSOs’ representatives and adolescent themselves. Geographical diversity was captured through states coming from different parts of India. Several state organizations having networks had participated in the national adolescent consultation. Twelve states namely Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi, Bihar, UP, J&K, Orrisa, Gujrat, and West Bengal were present in person and three other states had sent their inputs on adolescent concerns and expectations. Most of the states who were present had conducted consultations in their respective states and had also selected one adolescent leader join the national level consultation. Among participants there were panelists who are experts in different thematic areas relating to adolescents. Moreover, two distinguished members from Planning Commission, Mr. R.K Gupta and Ms. Deepika Srivasthava, were also present.
The consultation was divided into different sessions. The adolescent consultation began with breakfast cum registration from 9am onwards. Immediately after, the Introductory plenary continued from 10.05-11.30, The introductory plenary was chaired by Mr. Pabitra Banerjee from Smile Foundation and panelists for the session were Mr. R K Gupta from Panning Commission, Dr. Geeta Sodhi from Swaasthya and Ms. Pallavi Patel from CHETNA. However, due to absence of a member from Wada Na Todo in the plenary Dr. Geeta Sodhi took the responsibility of covering WNTA’s effort in the entire process. Followed by, Ms. Pallavi Patel gave a background on expanding and enlarging civil society partnership and participation. Introductory plenary had set a general background for civil society engagement in the adolescent consultation. Moreover, the session also provided a technical touch with Dr. Geeta Sodhi’s presentation of review on 11th Plan and Mid Term Appraisal Report.
Following introductory session, due to an enthusiastic response, the session was opened up and a few states shared their experience on state level consultations and finding (from11.30am-12.00pm). After that, group work was done for understanding concerns, promises and expectation. During Plenary session (3.00-4.15), there were three presentations made by groups and following it there was four panelist’s presentations. Aparajita Gogoi (CEDPA) commented from a holistic viewpoint, Ms. Sunayana Walia (ICRW) spoke from livelihood perspective, Ms. Anuja (Rahi) gave a sexual rights and child abuse perspective, and Mr. Joy Elamon (Solution Exchange) provided a broader perspective relating to adolescents. Ms. Poonam Muttreja from PFI, chaired the session. Lastly, there was the Way Forward session (from 4.15pm-5.00 pm), which was chaired by Ms. Vanita Nayak Mukherjee (Ford Foundation). During this session the possible future for the entire advocacy network on adolescent, was discussed.
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