Even minor changes can make a significant difference, especially when it comes to social causes. Child marriage is one such example. With the nation’s youth pledging to end child marriage, the prospect of a nation free of this evil gives goose bumps. Young people are not just our future, but powerful leaders of today. The advancement of technology has undoubtedly aided in the spread of awareness about child marriage across all states, and we can only hope for the best.
These are just a few of the inspiring stories of young people from all over India who are working tirelessly to end the scourge of child marriage.
Payal Jangid
Payal Jangid, the 2019 Goalkeepers Award winner from Rajasthan, was told as a child that women had to play second fiddle to men in their families. She herself escaped child marriage. The Rajasthan teen, now a leading child rights activist, was presented the award by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation at the Goalkeepers Global Goals Awards in New York in recognition of her work towards the abolition of child marriage in her village, Hinsla, and other neighboring villages in the desert state.
The 17-year-old believes that child marriage has completely crippled society’s vitality and that there is an urgent need to eradicate the age-old social evil so that children like her can focus on education. Payal believes that every young person, including herself, is a changemaker. She has urged the entire village to work together in order to combat the threat of child marriage. Jangid is the president of her village’s children’s parliament (bal panchayat). She undertook a slew of field activities to empower women and children of her own village and villages nearby.
Kriti Bharti
Kriti Bharti, yet another child activist from Jodhpur, has even faced death threats as she continues to fight to prevent illegal weddings of Indian girls and boys. She is dubbed “India’s Child Marriage Warrior” for a reason. The Jodhpur-based activist and psychologist is well-known for invalidating 29 child marriages and delaying the illegal marriages of over 900 Indian girls and boys, despite receiving death threats in the process.
Work means everything to Bharti, who is proud to have founded the Saarthi Trust in 2011. The non-profit organisation works to protect victims of child marriages and to empower women. The Saarthi Trust made history by annulling the first child marriage in India. Dr. Bharti was also awarded the Geneva Centre’s Award for Youth Human Rights Champion in 2022. The need for a long-term solution is perhaps most pressing in Rajasthan, Dr Bharti’s native state, where child marriage rates are among the highest in the world. Instead of simply preaching or campaigning against child marriages, the reformer says she prefers to address the issue head-on by fighting the cases in court.
Tangde and Kamble
Tangde and Kamble are child rights activists in the district of Beed, Maharashtra, which is notorious for child marriages. The early marriages in Beed are strongly linked to India’s thriving sugar industry. Tangde and Kamble owe their success, which is a one-of-a-kind story of rebellion, to the popularity of WatsApp groups in rural India, which makes the work faster and safer.
Tangde began meeting female sugarcane cutters about 15 years ago with his wife, activist Manisha Tokle, whose work focuses on assisting women in the sugarcane industry. They realised the harsh reality that the girls there had all married in their early teens, if not earlier. Tangde and his coworker Kamble established a network of people who eventually became their “informants.” That encompassed a wide range of people.
Over the years, the two activists have built a network of over 2,000 informants across the district, which has assisted them in uncovering over 4,500 child marriages in Beed in ten years.
Seema Shah
Young age and poverty have not been able to break the 17-year-old Seema Shah, who not only stopped her own marriage but has also emerged as a source of inspiration for other girls through her work against the illegal activities in her area.
Seema Shah, a resident of Kulipara in Siliguri, West Bengal, lost her father when she was three years old. Her family is entirely reliant on the earnings of Shah’s brother, who works in a factory. Despite this, she continues to be a source of strength and support for local girls. Her parents attempted to marry her off when she was in Class 11. She not only called off her wedding, but she also prohibited child marriage in three other schools in her community. The NGO CINI honored Shah in 2018 for her bravery and development work in the area.
Jharkhand rises against child marriage
In a recent development in Jharkhand, hundreds of villages across 24 districts held awareness campaigns in which an astounding number of men, women, and children pledged to end child marriage in the state, in an incredible show of solidarity for a government-directed social cause. Various government departments had written to officials and other stakeholders requesting full participation in the ‘Child Marriage Free India’ campaign and a pledge to end child marriage in Jharkhand. Child Marriage Free India is a nationwide campaign led by women activists and 160 civil society organizations in more than 300 districts to eliminate child marriage in India by 2030.
Child marriage frequently jeopardises a girl’s development by causing early pregnancy and social isolation, disrupting her education, limiting her opportunities for career and vocational advancement, and putting her at risk of domestic violence. The impact on child grooms has not been thoroughly researched, but marriage may place boys in adult roles for which they are unprepared, as well as place economic pressures on them and limit their opportunities for further education or career advancement.
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