Development of children, adolscent girls and young women in India: Policy and program priorities

Adolescence has been described as the transition period in which young people undergoes enormous physical and psychological changes. It is a period of emotional changes, wherein their thinking becomes abstract. They are pressurized by fascinated peer, media and social influences both in terms of positive as well as negative. At the same time, the young mothers have a varied nature of needs and concerns. Accordingly, the challenges also vary depending upon one's skills, attitude and behaviour by acquiring education and bringing up by social environment. Though the needs and concern of adolescents and young mothers have remained quite the same, they have acquired other dimensions with new problems and challenges h. The present paper focuses on the development of children, adolescent girls s and young women and various policy and program taken up for their development.