Sixteen-year-old Lakshmi’s voice travels through the streets of Mubarakpur. She sings in the Hindi-Bhojpuri strain of Chandauli, a district in Uttar Pradesh bordering Bihar. “Apne bojh bhale Papa, lihab utaare, hamra ke deb Papa, jite di ki maari. Kam hi umar mein Papa, kar na biyah ho,” (Papa, even if you get me married thinking I am your burden, you would have killed me while I am still alive. Papa, please don’t marry me off at such a young age).

Lakshmi wrote the song for her father when she was in Class 5. At the time, her marriage had been fixed, and she had wanted to study further. When Lakshmi first sang the song, her was not convinced by its message. Eventually, with intervention from anganwadi workers and the village pradhan, he agreed to pause her marriage. Today, the streets are lined with mud houses that feature painted messages on them, announcing the need for change. 

Seated on a mat below a tree, in Mubarakpur village, with her friends from neighbourhood villages, Lakshmi holds forth. The group has gathered for a programme to fight child marriage. “I want to become a social worker and stop other child marriages in the village,” she says. Lakshmi and her friends, all girls, are finding ways to resist, and educate those around them that it is a violation of the law.

According to a 2023 UNICEF report, India accounts for 34% of child brides across the world, meaning that one in three of the world’s child brides are in India. The same report points out that Uttar Pradesh is home to the highest number of child brides. Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Maharashtra, and Madhya Pradesh together have half of the number of child brides in the country. 

In Mubarakpur, where the primary occupation is farming, on a hot afternoon, when nobody is on the streets, the brown of the mud houses is contrasted by the slogans written on the outside walls. Written in blue paint by the girls, is a Hindi slogan on one of the houses , saying, ‘Every house will light a lamp, and every child will go to school,’ and on the wall of another house in red, ‘Child marriage: not now, not ever.’

Chanchal, 17, smiles as Lakshmi sings her song. Her friend’s resounding voice pushes her to open up about her own story; “I had fallen sick when I was in Class 8. I could not go out for some time, and I could hear my family planning my marriage, referring to me as a ‘bojh’ (burden).” She is one of seven sisters.

In Chandauli district, which is near Varanasi, the percentage of women between 20 and 24 years who were married before age 18, stands at 17.2%, as per the National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-5, recorded in 2019-2021. This was still an improvement from the previous round of the survey, when this stood at 33.7%, recorded in 2015-2016 as a part of NFHS-4. 

Rooted in taboos and expectations

Sunita Devi, an anganwadi worker, who herself got married before the age of 18, has been working proactively to stop child marriage in the village. With sindoor on her forehead, and carrying a register in her bag always, Ms Sunita says it wasn’t easy to get started. “Initially, everyone in the village would say that I am working on it because I have daughters and I want to stop them from getting married early,” she says.

But over the past few years, 6-7 child marriages have effectively been stopped in the village. She says, “We explain to the parents that the girl is still not mature, and if she has a child at such a young age, it can adversely impact both her health and her child’s health. Some agree, others get upset with us.” 

The girls quip that they have to ask their parents for “an extension” every few years. They also tell people around them that they can be arrested under the provisions of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006. 

Ruksana Begum, the pradhan, who is seated with Sunita, helping her keep track of children who are prone to child marriage in the register, says, “When we explain the dangers to parents, they say that they do not have enough money to take care of the girl. They are also scared that their daughter will meet someone outside their ‘biraadri’ (community), so they want to marry them young, before that can happen.” 

Despite the intervention, the girls say that nobody marries of their “own choice” or outside their own caste and religion. When anyone mentions the words “love marriage”, it is often in hushed tones. 

The need for support

Lakshmi points out that it helps that the anganwadi workers and their village pradhan are women, who can understand what they are going through. While the Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) provides a framework to combat challenges such as child marriage among other issues such as child labour, implementation is being driven by a combination of anganwadi workers and ASHA workers, and village pradhans, who are receiving training from grassroots-level organisations. 

The ministry mandates the formation of a Child Welfare and Protection Committee (CW&PC) at the village level, accompanied by similar committees on the district and state level. However, a committee member said that they were inactive before they were provided with additional support and training. 

One such programme that is bridging this gap is ‘KAWACH’, run by British Asian Trust, in partnership with local organisations, which aims to ensure that frontline workers are supported, trained and backed by the structures they are already a part of. Dr Neelima Pandey, who heads the programme, says, “Frontline workers are often the first to know, and the most trusted to act. With the backing of key stakeholders and the right tools and empowerment, they can become a powerful force for child protection at the community level.” 

She adds that providing such support to frontline workers like anganwadi workers has led to a significant uptick in the identification and prevention of child marriage cases in the areas KAWACH operates in, which includes UP, Bihar, and West Bengal. 

In Rampur village, this coordination has been instrumental in curbing child marriage, points out Paras Nath Singh, the village head. Inside the gram panchayat office, a list of 11 members along with their phone numbers, has been stuck on an orange-painted wall. The list includes an anganwadi worker, an ASHA worker and even child members who are tasked with informing the committee when any other child they know is about to get married.

Since the committee has become active, Mr Singh too, has found ways of determining the prevalence of child marriage. He says, “Many parents come to us to change a girl’s age in her Aadhaar card from 15 or 16 to 18. This makes it obvious that they are planning a marriage.” 

The committee advises the parents and tells them that they will be ineligible for many government programmes if they marry their daughter young, including the “samuhik vivah” or mass wedding scheme, which also provides cash incentives but on the condition that they marry after 18. 

Financial pressures

In Ghatmapur village in the same district, Roshni (name changed to protect identity), steps out of her one-room house to the newly-established grocery shop in front of their home, in a black salwar suit. She has not only escaped child marriage, but also child labour. 

Extreme poverty pushed the family to agree to take up farm labour in Thane. Even Roshni, 16, and her younger brother went with their parents to work at a radish farm. Roshni’s mother says, “We did not have any other option because we have many children, and less money. But we went there and regretted it.” 

The family includes the couple and six children, of which three are daughters. The youngest child, a toddler, is asleep on the bed as Roshni keeps shooing away the mosquitoes. 

After returning back to their village, they planned to get Roshni married for want of better options. Fidgeting with her black dupatta, Roshni says, “One day, I was coming back from school and I saw a man sitting in the house. I had a suspicion that he had come for me… I went inside and started crying.” 

With the committee telling the family about the impacts of child marriage, as well as legal repercussions, and facilitating Roshni’s re-enrollment in school, they have put a pause to the idea for now. Now in Class 11, Roshni says she likes studying Biology and wants to become a doctor. 

In the Chandauli district headquarters, inside an office, Prabhat Kumar, who is the Child Marriage Prohibition Nodal officer, says that the issue is often monetary and that families tell officers that they will “break” due to the financial burden. He says that awareness of the law is still limited, and they are starting initiatives such as terming a village a “child-marriage free village” to inspire others to do the same.

Personal and professional battles

At a monthly remuneration of only Rs 8,000 per month for workers, which is lower than the state’s current minimum wage, anganwadi workers have numerous duties including pre-school education, keeping track of children and mothers’ health, and conducting home visits. But despite no additional monetary benefits from the government for the extra tasks they are assigned with, these women have resolved to proactively fight child marriage.

A recently-retired anganwadi worker, Lalmani, tears up when she says that she was left without any incentives, pension or benefits, since anganwadi workers are recognised as volunteers and not government employees. “Even after retirement, my family members say that it is in my nature to work towards social change,” she adds. 

In Naugarh, a block in Chandauli, which is surrounded by verdant forests, a group of anganwadi workers gather in a centre after their work for the day. When asked how many of them were married before the age of 18, almost all of them raise their hands, and start sharing their stories. “I got married at 11 because of monetary issues,” says one of them.

Having spent years on the field, they observe changes in patterns too, such as the fact that younger generations are forthcoming to inter-caste and inter-religious marriage, which is pushing parents to tighten their grip over children. 

Despite this, Renu Jaiswal says emphatically, “Maa hamesha maan jaati hai” (The mother always agrees). She adds, “Because she has been through it herself, and does not want her daughter to go through the same. Explaining to fathers is the hardest.” 

Now 50, she recalls her marriage at 15, which was arranged by her family. This was before the 2006 Act. “I really wanted to study and become something but I was married in Class 10 and couldn’t continue. Many times, over the years, I wanted financial independence because I had to depend on my husband even for ₹10.” Eventually, she became an anganwadi worker in 2004. And now, she does not want anyone to go through the same. 

The workers point out that they are often threatened by families for getting “too involved in family affairs”. But this is where backing from the block and district officials helps them. When someone is not agreeing and going ahead with the marriage, they alert the local police stations too. However, this is a last resort, as the aim is not to shame families but to make them understand the cons of child marriage, they say. 

Hopeful futures

As the child representative of the Child Welfare and Protection Committee (CW&PC) Lakshmi, she is half-way to her dream of becoming a social worker and helping those around her. “One of my friends’ marriages got fixed. She asked me ‘you help everybody, will you help me too?’” Lakshmi informed the committee who counselled her friend’s family until they could stop it too. 

Now, both Lakshmi and Chanchal are studying in Class 12 and are known as champions in their schools for fighting child marriage. Chanchal, who wants to become a District Magistrate to “find solutions” to her district’s problems, was even given the opportunity to take over as the UP State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, as part of an annual tradition, in 2024. 

Her eyes light up when she recalls this day, the first time that she travelled to Lucknow. She even issued an order on a child rights issue, after receiving a complaint. With hope in her voice, she says, “Since that day, the path to becoming a DM, and addressing issues such as child marriage, has become even clearer to me.”