Focus Area

Abortion

Access to abortion is conditional and regulated by complex legal restrictions. Despite the availability of safe and legal abortion in India, socio-cultural stigmas and taboos, bureaucratic delays and a general lack of knowledge around medical and legal information create much confusion for those who seek abortion. Our work aims to destigmatise abortion seeking and provide technically correct and respectful information to abortion seekers and advocates. We advocate for a rights-based perspective to abortion and the right of all pregnant persons to make autonomous decisions around when, how, with whom and whether or not to get pregnant or give birth. We take up research, awareness campaigns as well as capacity strengthening of young people and service providers.

Accessible Health Services

Adolescents and youth often face the biggest barriers in seeking information or services to make informed decisions around their bodies and health. They often deal with stigma, misinformation and gatekeeping by adults when it comes to information and services around sexual and reproductive health. We support and enable access to stigma free, affirming and respectful health services as a right for all young people. We assess and improve health service delivery to be non-judgemental and affirming of young people and their diversities. Our awareness campaigns and capacity building processes and resources ensure young people are included, consulted and treated with respect and dignity.

Adolescent Girls Leadership

Adolscent Health

Often clubbed together with “childhood” or “youthhood”, adolescence as a period of identity and life shaping change and development in the lives of young people is not always recognised in all its nuance. We advocate for and address the distinctive and specific needs of young people during adolescence. We ensure the inclusion of adolescents in programming and policy. Our work addresses the larger development and policy paradigm of adolescent health to ensure the inclusion of adolescents in all their diversity in interventions that address their lives.

Comprehensive Sexuality Education

CSE is a rights and gender-focused approach to sexuality education that equips young people with the information they need to protect their dignity, health and wellbeing. It gives young people information about body anatomy, puberty and the physical, emotional and social changes that come with it. Further, it also discusses topics such as attraction, consent, relationships, identities, power, violence, safe sexual practices, contraception, and abortion.

Covid Response

Masculinities

TYPF’s work with men and masculinity emerged from the critical question “What does young men’s feminist leadership look like”. Towards this, TYPF enables conversations with young men to critically analyse patriarchal norms of masculinity, gender and identities and reject violence as an expression of masculinity. Our interventions range across capacity building, research and public engagement and campaigning to change the acceptance of sexism, rigidity and violent aspects of masculinities and make visible more gentle, empathetic and intersectional ways of being men.

Mental health and Wellbeing

Mental health is now increasingly accepted as a fundamental aspect of overall well being and good health. However, especially for adolescents and youth, it remains stigmatised as a shameful condition or trivialised as a new age “millennial” trend. TYPF’s work on this issue spans across de-stigmatisation of mental health to ensure young people become more watchful about stress and mental health concerns and are able to identify and access support systems and services when required. TYPF actively addresses the intersections of self, identity formation and relationship issues with a diversity affirming and inclusive understanding of mental health needs and concerns. In that, the organisation goes beyond the typical understanding of education or career related stress and “bad habits and addictions” as the only aspect of mental health and wellbeing, and aims to address young people’s diverse and varying realities and needs more comprehensively.