Ahankari Anand, Ovseiko Pavel, Kabra Pratyush, Giridhari Sneha, Rayamane Kranti, Whitfield Clare, Ali Parveen, Hayter Mark
Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Hull, Hull, HU6 7RX, UK.
Faculty of Health & Medical Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford, GU2 7YH, UK.
F1000Res. 2022 Sep 13;11:1045. doi: 10.12688/f1000research.124577.1. eCollection 2022.
Gender equality is a fundamental human right and vital to accelerate global progress towards several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Adolescents' involvement is essential to achieve such equality and SDGs to develop peaceful sustainable societies. However, there are limited data especially from developing countries such as India to plan gender equality related programmes targeted at adolescents. : We conducted a cross-sectional survey to assess gender equality related knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours among 16 to 19 year-old adolescents from sixty villages of the Maharashtra state of India. : Data from 1306 respondents (667 females and 639 males) showed a mean score of 30 out of 44, suggesting an overall moderate gender equality score in rural adolescents. The majority of girls (68.3%) were in the high scoring group, whereas the majority of boys were in the moderate group (60.3%). Regression analysis showed that responses from boys were associated with lower scores compared to responses from girls by five points (adjusted β-coefficient: -4.99, 95%CI: -5.85 to -4.12, p<0.001). : Our findings suggest that there is a need to involve adolescents with a major focus on boys to improve gender equality in rural areas of Maharashtra. This will help introduce concepts of equality from an early age to educate boys, empower girls, and address gender-based discrimination and violence against girls and women.
性别平等是一项基本人权，对于加快实现多项可持续发展目标（SDG）的全球进展至关重要。青少年的参与对于实现这种平等以及发展和平可持续社会的可持续发展目标至关重要。然而，特别是来自印度等发展中国家的数据有限，难以规划针对青少年的性别平等相关项目。我们进行了一项横断面调查，以评估印度马哈拉施特拉邦60个村庄16至19岁青少年中与性别平等相关的知识、态度和行为。1306名受访者（667名女性和639名男性）的数据显示，在44分中平均得分为30分，表明农村青少年的性别平等总体得分中等。大多数女孩（68.3%）处于高分群体，而大多数男孩处于中等群体（60.3%）。回归分析表明，与女孩的回答相比，男孩的回答得分低5分（调整后的β系数：-4.99，95%置信区间：-5.85至-4.12，p<0.001）。我们的研究结果表明，有必要让青少年参与进来，主要关注男孩，以改善马哈拉施特拉邦农村地区的性别平等。这将有助于从小就引入平等概念，教育男孩，增强女孩权能，并解决基于性别的歧视以及针对女孩和妇女的暴力问题。
