Girl Child

A young teenager’s fight to make her city and community safer for girls and women has inspired her family members to join the cause and spread the word about women’s safety as well.

Once topping the charts in child marriages in the country, Bihar has reduced the incidence of this social evil considerably, helped by innovative interventions such as starting girls clubs for solidarity, and encouraging them to play football.

Phoolwanti had no time for school, but she was eager to study. She imagined how school would look like every single day she set out to work with her mother. Thanks to timely and patient intervention, Phoolwanti was finally able to achieve her dream of education.

Narsamma, a young girl from Andhra Pradesh, has been able to put a life of servitude behind her to focus on studies, thanks to the concerted efforts of a group of well-wishers.

Talking about topics like menstruation and menstrual health can be difficult in rural India. Recognising this, a team of volunteers decided to create a space where young girls from a Rajasthan village could discuss these topics without fear.

One often finds that even the most underprivileged girls and women have a lot to express and contribute about gender issues if given the right platform, as an art workshop recently showed.

Nivetha, a young schoolgirl with no exposure to posh education, has built a robot supported by volunteers and her friends.

The realization of social and economic exploitation of girls and women in society became motivation for a housewife to start a free school exclusively for girls.

The villages in the desert of Rajasthan are notorious for child brides, but groups of girls are now banding together to defy and upturn a long-held tradition to assure a new and better future for themselves. Tarun Kanti Bose takes a closer look.

Daimati Santa was to be married off at the age of 16. Today, she is leading the fight against child marriage in rural Odisha.