By Aman Chhabra | Project Leader
Dear Donor,
It's story time again!! This time we are highlighting how safety, security and ‘family honour’ concerns are still a major reason for the continuing prevalence of Early Marriage.
Meena and Reena (names changed) are twins from Ruhipur village of Sadar block of Ghazipur. They are very candid and confident speakers. One cannot help smiling at their garrulous and friendly nature. The duo faced a stiff challenge after passing their class 10. Their mother wanted to marry them. Since their father is working in Dubai and mother was alone at home looking after them, she was worried. There had been 5-6 recent incidents of young girls marrying out of their choice. Their mother was afraid lest Meena or Reena also decide to marry someone of their choice. “Such action would have tarnished our family honour and name”, said their mother. When a good proposal came for Reena, their mother agreed to perform her under age marriage.
But the two girls protested strongly against her decision. They had been part of the Adolescent Empowerment programme and knew the repercussions of early marriage. They had seen that in-case of their elder sister how early marriage and early pregnancy spoiled the health and a girl’s life seems doomed with little freedom and several restrictions imposed by in-laws. They began to cry and called up their father.
They reasoned and pleaded with their father. Their father was supportive as by now he had also realized his mistake of performing early marriage of their eldest daughter. He therefore promised to convince their mother against her decision of marrying off, an under aged Reena.
Their mother understood when their father spoke to her, to support the education of Meena and Reena. The girls were then enrolled in class 11. The two are happy now and thankful to the programme as it was the learnings of the programme that made their negotiation against early marriage easier.
We hope to continue to equip girls with awareness, confidence and communication skills so that they are able to negotiate against early marriage, including their own.
Taaron Ki Toli (Legion of Stars) Sessions
Taaron Ki Toli is our key intervention through which don’t only mould gender attitudes but also equip adolescent girls with awareness, confidence and negotiation skills so that they are able to raise voice for themselves as well as their peers against ills like early marriage, gender based discrimination and violence.
We work through Taaron Ki Toli with two age cohorts. The 10-14 age group called ‘Ujjwal Taras’ and 15-18 age group called ‘Roshan Taras.
During the reporting period we were able to reach 48,505 Ujjwal Taras and 19,152 Roshan Taras through the Taron Ki Toli sessions. Other than TKT sessions, 12518 adolescents (12,369 girls; 149 boys) are also engaged in community-based interactions. We have also engaged with women’s groups, community stakeholders, government representatives through community mobilization activities to create a supportive ecosystem for girls breaking norms and building gender-equal spaces.
Community Mobilization Activities
62 Kishori melas were held in intervention schools in Lucknow and Gorakhpur districts in which the students presented issue based songs, dance and theatre. A key highlight of the kishori melas this time was that the members of the student council were introduced to the gathering and the roles and responsibilities of the student’s council as well as the school management committee were discussed. The students also enjoyed taking part in gender games while the snake and ladder game generated a lot of discussion on issues and topics related to adolescents. We reached out to 12,052 people through these kishori melas.
Kishori Melas were also held in 21 schools of Hazaribagh, Jharkhand wherein the focus was on intergenerational dialogues regarding aspirations of girls and to provide a platform to girls for negotiation on the same. The students gave thank you cards to teachers, members of School Management Committees and their parents. They also gave aspiration cards to their parents with requests for support in fulfilling their dreams and aspirations. We reached out to 3495 people through these kishori melas.
The “theatre of oppressed” school activity has been held in the districts of Ghazipur and Maharajganj. The inaugural show of “Theatre of Oppressed” was held in Khalispur Inter College. The shows this time focussed on different kinds of violence faced by adolescents in schools, families and communities. Another focus of the shows was to convey to the audience how an environment can be built within families to support the aspirations of daughters with mothers playing a key role. The shows have been much appreciated by stakeholders as well as community members. A total of 38 shows have been held in the intervention schools in Ghazipur district so far reaching out to 25,988 people. In Maharajganj district 37 shows have been held reaching out to 17,666 people.
This all work is happening because of support of DONORS like YOU. We would request you to continue your support in the coming year and if possible recommend our project to like-minded people.
Wish you a Very Happy New Year in Advance !!
With Hope and Gratitude,
Aman Chhabra.
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