It’s My Body
Advancing the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) of girls through sports
I am a fat girl. People have always teased me about my body, my weight, my clothes and my style. When I joined the IMB program, everyone said how can a fat girl play football. But, I didn’t give up. I stayed on and practiced. Today I want to tell everyone that I can play and do everything that others can and I am proud to be who I am. An adolescent girl enrolled in IMB program | Jharkhand
Women and girls have always been told what they can or cannot do, how they should behave and what they can wear, diminishing their decision-making power over their bodies, choices and lives. Young girls and women experience discriminatory practices, lack of access to public spaces and gender norms reinforced through sociocultural interactions throughout their lives.
To ensure that women and girls can challenge existing stereotypes, address negative discrimination, and can exercise control over their bodies and sexuality, CREA designed a community-level intervention in 2010 called It’s My Body (IMB) with girls (including those from tribal, Dalit and religious minorities), co-implemented with community-based organizations in the states of Jharkhand, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
Through a previous campaign, “Against Son Preference”, CREA also realized how sport can be used in a rights-affirming way to talk about restrictive social norms, sexuality, and sexual and reproductive health (SRH).
Talking about SRH rights through sports breaks gender stereotypes around who can and should play sports. It is a fun, effective way to initiate conversations with girls about sensitive yet important topics: mobility, bodily autonomy, choice, consent and pleasure. These discussions are springboards for deeper conversations around sexuality and rights.
CREA and partner organizations also work with parents and families and other stakeholders in the girls’ communities to create a supportive environment. Program participants also create sustainable support systems by working collaboratively with older cohorts who guide the younger girls in their respective locations.
The cohorts work together, guided by community-based trainers, to develop action projects based on the learning, challenges and changing gender landscape in their communities. For example, women in the villages of Ichak Kala and Bara, in Hazaribagh district of Jharkhand, addressed the issue of non-functional public toilets. Their efforts finally resulted in functional toilets, proving how young women and girls can step up as effective advocates for their rights.
In the past decade, IMB has:
- Been implemented in collaboration with 15 community-based women’s rights organizations in Bihar, Jharkhand, and Uttar Pradesh
- Reached more than 10,000 girls directly and indirectly
- Expanded through our pool of girls’ sports coaches
- Enhanced young women’s mobility and overall access to communal spaces
- Expanded to work with Elected Women Representatives in the same communities on feminist leadership, political participation and gender-based violence.
CREA has since concluded the IMB program as originally designed in 2022. However, several organizations continue to take this concept forward by using sport to initiate conversations around gender, sexuality and bodily autonomy. CREA supports these organizations in multiple ways and various capacities.
Advancing Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights of Adolescent Girls through SportsResource
It's My Body
My entire life, I have been taught to say NO to everything. But now, I want to say what I really want! I want to say YES to what I really want! I want to say YES to going to school...I want to say YES to going out...I want to say YES to playing football...I want to say YES to all the things that bring happiness to me!
An adolescent girl from IMB programme, Jharkhand, India
