Position: Single-District Coordinators – Providing Technical Assistance to the Advika Center for Excellence, Department of Women and Child Development, on Schemes and Services for Adolescent Empowerment, Ending Child Marriage, and Positive Parenting
Employing Agency (Employer): Inductus Limited
Remuneration: Gross compensation budgeted for the position is attractive. Please note that the offer made to the selected candidate shall be commensurate with qualifications and experience. Applicants to mention their current professional fee & expected professional fee on
www.inductusjobs.com/un
No. of Vacancy: 8 Position (Eight)
Duty Station: Odisha
Reporting Line:
- Administrative Supervision- Inductus Limited
- Technical Supervisor-
- UN ORGANISATION: Child Protection Specialist
- Government: Nodal Officer, Advika-cum-Assistant Director, OSCP,DWCD
Last Date for Application: 23rd October 2026 (Mid-Night)
CONTENT OF TERMS OF REFERENCE
Background:
India is home to the world’s largest adolescent population, accounting for 20% of adolescents globally. This demographic represents enormous potential and unlocking it depends on ensuring adolescents are safe, healthy, educated, and equipped with life skills. However, many adolescents still lack access to reliable information and safe spaces where they can exercise their agency and participate meaningfully in decisions that shape their lives.
Girl’s experience added vulnerabilities due to entrenched gender norms in society that limit their agency, mobility, decision-making, and choices around education, employment, and marriage. According to a report by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), around 40 per cent of girls aged 15-18 years drop out of education due to domestic responsibilities, child marriage, child labour, or lack of sanitation facilities. Harmful social norms around menstruation and lack of access to information on menstrual hygiene continues to disrupt girls’ participation in social life, including education, across the country. Furthermore, with nearly one in four young women married before the age of 18, child marriage continues to be a deeply entrenched challenge across many parts of the country.
Odisha with a population of 42 million is home to over 8.3 million adolescents aged 10-19 years. In Odisha, 18.6% of marriages involve girls, and 6.5% of girls become mothers before the age of 19.
Key game changers for adolescent development include delaying marriage, improving health and nutrition, ensuring quality education, building employability skills, and creating opportunities for participation and self-expression. Strengthening communication and leadership skills allows adolescents to amplify their voices and shape policies affecting their lives. Equally critical is engaging parents and communities to shift harmful norms and support adolescent empowerment. In this regard, Advika, a scheme for adolescent empowerment, has been impactful in collectivizing adolescents into peer groups where they developed life skills, agency, and leadership. The Government of Odisha has allocated INR 100 million annually for Advika from FY 2023, underscoring its commitment to adolescent empowerment as a pathway to adolescent empowerment.
Another key milestone has been the launch of the 2nd Odisha State Strategic Action Plan (OSSAP) to End Child Marriage 2024-29, by the Government of Odisha with the support of UN ORGANISATION. The OSSAP provides a multisectoral, convergent framework to end child marriage in the state and all the 30 districts also have developed District Action Plans (DAPs) following the OSSAP.
Child vulnerability mapping conducted in five districts has been instrumental in identifying vulnerable children and families and linking them to social protection schemes. This has helped strengthen families and mitigate risks that contribute to family separation, child marriage, child labour, and unsafe migration. The government has requested UN ORGANISATION’s support to scale it up across all 30 districts and build systems to manage and use the data for linking vulnerable children to relevant schemes of the government.
To sustain and deepen ongoing efforts for adolescent empowerment, positive parenting, and child protection, the Advika Centre of Excellence (ACE) has been established by the Government of Odisha in partnership with UN ORGANISATION and housed within the Odisha State Child Protection Society (OSCPS). The ACE is functioning as a dedicated institutional mechanism to convene, converge, and catalyse action across departments and sectors, ensuring coordinated implementation of the Odisha State Strategic Action Plan (OSSAP) to End Child Marriage 2024–27, along with related initiatives such as Mission Vatsalya, Mission Shakti, and Advika.
For detailed information, please check the complete version of the advert attached below.