Adolescent girls in Kathmandu have banded themselves into ‘kishori’ groups with the help of an organisation called Shakti Samuha. Their aim is to help women combat violence in homes and in the society at large. They also provide support to battered women.

The girls’ areas of work include domestic violence, sexual exploitation and trafficking of girls and women and they concentrate on slums, government schools and carpet factories. They have been using street theatre to raise awareness and have actively been organising discussions and meetings with parents on the issue of violence against women, and also gaining public attention for the issue through speech and quiz competitions. The girls have managed to develop a good rapport with the police and other organisations (whose outreach is large) in order to disseminate information.

The girls have also shown tremendous enterprise in organising support services for women in distress and ensuring punishment for the perpetrators of violence within their communities.

Of late, directing and monitoring public health and sanitation activities within the community; organising tuition classes for young girls and obtaining training on adolescent reproductive health and passing on the gained information to other girls in their community have also been incorporated into the work portfolio of these girls.

According to the girls, these activities have made them ‘confident’, empowered and ‘ready to take on opposition’. They say they are happy to help their sisters in distress so that they too will gain access to spaces and power denied to them so far.