Online Focus Group Discussions: Exploring perceptions of safety with the adolescents in Sikanderpur and Nathupur

Introduction:
In the wake of the second wave of the pandemic, online Focus group Discussions were organized by the research team at PRIA. The focus-group discussions, which were planned as a face-to-face activity, had to be deferred due to the imposition of lockdown in Gurugram and adjoining areas. The discussions revolved around the topics of nutrition and safety. While nutrition-related discussions were conducted with the ‘mother’ group, the latter was discussed with the adolescent group.

In order to explore the topic of violence and safety from the perspective of adolescents, the facilitators proposed arts-based methodology as an effective tool to identify the social determinants behind adolescent perception of safety.

Methodology:

The following section details the methodology adopted by the facilitators to explore the topic of safety among the adolescents in Gurugram. The FGDs were conducted on April 25,2021.

Learning Objectives

To explore the perception of safety among adolescent

 Time Duration

60-90 minutes

Group Size

8 adolescent boys and girls(3 boys and 5 girls)

Session Requirements

Zoom cloud-conferencing application (participants must have smartphones with pre-loaded zoom app.)

 Number of facilitators required

2 (One facilitator can conduct this session, along with a co-facilitator, who will assist with screen-sharing and note-making)

• Instructions
  • The facilitator begins the session with a brief introduction where each participant is given a chance to introduce themselves (name, age and their current status of schooling or occupation)
  • The session proceeds to explain to the participant the objectives of the session and the topic of discussion. A brief about ‘safety’ is given by the facilitators, post which the participants are encouraged to talk about their perception of safety and how they view it in their everyday life.
  • After understanding the perception of safety from the viewpoint of adolescents, the facilitators will ask the participants to list down the places that they frequent on a daily basis, e.g.: Home, school, community, market, parks, etc. (While the participants talk about these places, the facilitator share his/her screen with the participants and list down these in the online whiteboard in the below format)

  Places à

  Home

  School

  Community

  Roads

  Market

  Parks

  • After preparing the following chart, each participant is asked to mark all listed places as safe, unsafe, or moderately safe (based on their experience or understanding of that place) with the help of mood stickers. The participants would be required to identify the reasons for assigning the sticker to the particular location.

   

  • Smiling mood sticker to identify a safe space. These are spaces that the participants feel comfortable with visiting, even if they are alone. Being in these spaces does not induce a feeling of fear or of being scared. 
  • Sad mood sticker to identify an unsafe space. Unsafe spaces are described as a space where adolescent do not venture during the day or night, alone or in groups. Being in these spaces gives them a feeling of fear, tension and discomfort.
  • Moderate mood sticker to signify a space which is sometimes safe and sometimes unsafe. These are spaces that adolescents can go to with a group of friends or with their parents or guardian. They would however not prefer to venture into theses spaces alone. 
  • Each participant is individually asked to mark stickers for each place with a valid reason for choosing that particular sticker. While putting the stickers, the facilitator will count the responses for each sticker and then put the corresponding number of stickers in the specified cell, e.g., if 5 five participants have said that home is safe for them then in that case 5 ‘smiling’ smiles will be put in the safe cell. Likewise, corresponding stickers will be put for all the places in each column with a reason for each.

Discussion:

Majority of the participants rated their ‘home’ as a safe space. However, the fear of being punished or reprimanded by parents was a concern for some of the adolescents.

Even though the school was perceived to be safe, the route to school was not considered safe by majority of the participants. Violence within the school premises, traffic congestion and rash driving, abusive language and unwarranted comments by pedestrians and riders were reported by the participants.

Mixed responses were evoked from the participants regarding their perception of community that they live in. While some of the participants perceived their community to be a safe space, violence and fear of being judged made the girls perceive their community to be ‘less space’.

Malls or gated shopping centers were perceived to be more safe than open markets. The facility of security provided within the premises of the mall made it safe for adolescents, while in the open market, there was no restraint on unsafe behavior, most of which is covert like pickpocketing, inappropriate touch etc.

Fig. Online FGD- Arts-based methodology