Archi Jain, a Youth Leader with Go Nisha Go (GNG), believes that being associated with the programme has personally helped her work on the importance of sexual reproductive health rights (SRHR) with people of different lived experiences, identities, and mindsets. “Even today, it is difficult to talk about sexual rights, sexual health, and sex in Indian urban and rural spaces. Our reluctance as a society to openly talk about SRH has further limited young people’s access to SRHR resources,” observes the 19-year-old Youth Leader, who is pursuing Bachelors of Commerce from Rajasthan University in Jaipur, Rajasthan.
Which is why GNG’s format, enabling access in the fascinating format of a game, which also allows players to take on decision-making roles and exhibit agency, and comes as a whiff of much-needed fresh air, says Archi. From contraception and safe sex methods, to menstrual hygiene and awareness, the game is trying to break barriers and kickstart important conversations around SRH by not attaching any shame.
“It is important to understand that SRHR are critical building blocks for achieving gender equality, yet they are severely restricted around the world. SRHR is a fundamental component of Universal Health attention, which ensures physical, emotional, mental, and social well-being, as well as the absence of disease or malfunction,” says Archi. She reflects on how her personal experience of menstruation became an eye-opener towards the gap of knowledge of SRHR in her own family. “I wanted to talk about it with peers, but found them reluctant. When I became associated with GNGo through Restless Development, I realized that as a young person of this country, it should be perfectly alright for me to talk about periods and products for periods, sex and contraceptive methods, and sexual health,” says Archi. But unfortunately, young people get uncomfortable when it comes to SRHR. Archi is driven towards changing this narrative. She began going around trying to understand what the people in her own community think about SRHR, with the aim to stir up conversations on SRH and steer them in the direction of breaking the taboos around these topics. She began to dig out the root causes behind these stereotypes around SRHR.
Archi believes that youth’s lack of understanding of SRHR should be addressed and the gap in their knowledge should be bridged. It is a big step in the right direction that many young people are now more inclined towards discussing SRHR, but most people are hesitant to initiate these conversations, primarily due to generational gaps, myths, and uneasiness nurtured by older generations.
GNG’s emphasis on instilling confidence and building self-esteem of youth through role-playing and decision-making while playing the game, makes having conversations around SRHR easier now, more than ever! As a Youth Leader with GNG, I mobilise young women on the ground, encouraging them to play the game, which in turn, instills a lot of confidence in them. The GNG game is not just enabling a virtual ‘safe space’ for young girls and boys to discuss SRHR, but it also helps them make their own decisions about their sexual health rights, career, education, relationships, and other issues, notes Archi. “I want to continue to inspire young girls to take decisions the way Nisha does: fearlessly, yet with complete understanding of the impact of the life decisions she takes,” says Archi.