Dr Sangeetha Madhu - Women , Wellness & Leadership

Empowering girls to connect, lead and contribute to the community

“It is better to conquer ourselves than to win a thousand battles” – Buddha.

Emotional well-being is a fundamental human right and an essential ingredient for a sustainable and functional society, related to the quality of people’s lives, capabilities, and contributions. It can encompass resilience, mental assets, and resources, capabilities, self-esteem, self-efficacy, and optimism. Global Leadership and Development (GLAD), strives towards promoting positive mental health in the community, equity in leadership training, and mental well-being of young people irrespective of the systemic barriers and challenges by utilizing sources of strength in the community through evidence-based programs. Before adolescence, many girls can voice their feelings and establish a strong sense of self. When they reach puberty, however, they may be torn by pressures to conform. They are further hampered because there is enormous resistance by adults to listen to girls, especially marginalized girls. As a result, adolescent girls often lose their voices. Adolescence is an appropriate time to build on their sense of emotional well-being. Leadership through empathy, clarity of thought, and authenticity in action are developed through supportive relationships in a caring and safe environment. In today’s global context we need young women leaders who can take on difficult challenges, build trust, and empower others through commitment.

INDUS – A Leadership initiative

Youth leadership education for young women is critical to developing leadership skills. In India, the world's largest democracy, the adolescent segment below 20 years of age is around 41 percent of the population. A leadership training program titled INDUS ( Institute for Networking & Developing Under-served Community )to maximize leadership skills of young women focused on ten aspects of leadership i.e. ability to make decisions, solve problems, analyze facts, emotional coping strategy, self-confidence& awareness, communication skills, identify strengths, engage in teamwork, goal setting and identify, respect and promote values.

Behavior change is a research-based consultative process for addressing knowledge, attitudes, and practices. It enables groups of individuals to engage in participatory processes to define their needs and acquire skills. The current project aims to create future trainers in the community to promote sustainable leadership skills and capacity building in young women through emotional well-being, behavioral change, and personal transformation approach. We support change strategies that produce positive change within a social system. Skills focus: the training focuses on Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice change and building specific psycho-social skills that can help people make informed decisions, regulate emotions, build confidence, communicate effectively, and develop coping and self-management skills that will promote Youth Leadership.

‘Youth Leadership in this context refers to recognizing one’s potential, enhancing it, and using it in such a way to bring a change around oneself'. It is about moving from self-awareness, through self-management to creating healthy and rewarding relationships

Building a community of women leaders

Albeit, growing awareness, and evidence, women remain underrepresented in positions of leadership (Agar 2004, Brown 2005). Changes in perceptions about future aspirations for girls require targeted interventions. Brown and Gilligan (1992) identify early adolescence as a crossroads in displaying disconnection, reduced self-confidence, and drop-in self-esteem. This highlights the benefit of lead exposure for young women to encourage them to see themselves in leadership roles as well as to enable them to develop the requisite skills to challenge stereotypes and overcome barriers to take up these roles. The capacity of young women to adapt and recover from highly traumatic or stressful situations and thrive despite extremely deprived communities has led to the emergence of research in the field of leadership and resilience.

INDUS is a part of a broader initiative from the Global Leadership & Development (GLAD) and aspires to build a community of young women leaders who can enhance well-being, maximize their potential, discover their leadership style and learn how to leverage their strengths that can be amplified through community engagement.