lata Rana, Phula Majhi, Purnima Satnami and Bhumisuta Naik are some of the brave adolescent girls of Nuapada district who have struggled hard to overcome the pressure of their parents to tie them in marriage at an early age.
These girls, although belonging to different castes, have similar socio-economic-cultural backgrounds as well as barriers that make them vulnerable to the social evil called child marriage.
All of them belong to poor (BPl), seasonal migrant families; they are school dropouts and support their families financially either by accompanying to brick kilns or working locally as wage labours. But, on the other hand, they have also aspirations to adopt skills, need alternative work opportunities as well as family and societal support to become self dependent. But, do these opportunities existIJ “No”, reveals a study conducted jointly by Save the Children, OXFAM, Population Council and SIMAVI with support from a research organization called “IMPACT-Partners in Social Development.”
“The objective of the study which was undertaken in three States such as Bihar, Rajasthan and Odisha was to understand the economic opportunities, barriers and skill requirement for adolescent girls,” says Saumya Ranjan Mishra of Save the Children. “Although the State differs, the findings are more or less the same all over,” he adds.
Save the Children, in association with the NGOs, ASHA Odisha and SWATI, is implementing a project called ‘Marriage – No Child’s Play (ANANYA)’ in Nuapada and Kandhamal districts since last year. It has trained adolescent girls to bring change in the existing situation in the operational areas.
lata Rana belongs to Khairani village of Nuapada district. She struggled a lot to change her parents’ decision to give her marriage when she had just completed fifteen. “I would have succumbed to their decision, had I not been supported by the workers of ASHA Odisha,” lata says.
lata’s parents, potter by caste, became migrant labourers as their traditional occupation did not help them earn enough to maintain their livelihood.
They regularly migrated to Andhra Pradesh to work in the brick kilns and lata joined them in due course. She was in class VI, when she was forced to give up her study to help the family.
“The work place was not good, but we had no other choice as we are poor,” she says. lata’s parents must have thought it safe to give her marriage instead of taking her regularly to an unsafe place. But, the motivation created by the NGO gave her courage to dissuade her parents. The marriage stopped but her migration as well. She now stays with her grandparents in the absence of her parents and the support she was adding to the family has now stopped.
Phula Majhi, a tribal girl now 18, of Tanwat village also has simila story to share. She convinced her parents to change their decision on her marriage, last year. Purnima Satnami (16) is a Dalit girl of Biromal village. She is also happy that she was able to motivate her parents against child marriage.
Stories of such adolescent girls forced under various circumstances to marry at an early age are many. Despite the legal ban since over 85 years, child marriage continues to exist. This is the situation all over the State of Odisha and even the country. According to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS 2015-16), India has the largest number of child brides in the world.
However, what should be the efforts to overcome the situationIJ What is the perception of girls about good worksIJ How working influences marriage prospectsIJ Why unmarried girl should workIJ The research study was focused on all these aspects.
The research findings of the study recently shared by IMPACT in a State level workshop held at Bhubaneswar entitled, “Market and labour study to assess economic opportunities and skill for adolescent girls in Odisha” reveals that lack of access to economic opportunities for girls makes them vulnerable to the risk and impact of child marriage.
As per the findings, the girls believe that both unmarried and married girls should work to earn money to support their families. However, the work opportunities should be available in the village or nearby with good salary and respect for their skills.
They should be treated with dignity. With these perceptions of good work, the girls feel that to enhance their skill level, vocational training opportunities should be made available.
Most of the girls interviewed, however, have no information about existing income generation opportunities like availability of vocational training options, training centres and Government schemes.
The study reveals that less than 3 per cent of girls in Nuapada and about 5 per cent in Kandhamal knew about the Government schemes. Only 6.6 per cent of the total respondents have attended any vocational training.
The figure on pursuing graduation is discouraging, because according to the findings, when 72 per cent of the girls are currently going to school, only 3.3 per cent are pursuing graduation. It is interesting that, on their perception of problems at work places, about 13 per cent only feel that they would face abuse and harassment. Above 74 per cent of the girls feel that they should speak English and 88 per cent want computer education. When the perception is so high, the figures on existing work status are discouraging. Only 1 per cent of the total interviewees are self employed, when the rest are engaged as agricultural labourers. Information on financial inclusion reveals that 76.1 per cent have own bank accounts and 97.4 per cent of the accounts are managed by self, however, 82.4 per cent of the girls feel that they would not get financial support from bank as these institutions would not trust the girls.
Save the Children and its partners have been working since last one year on child marriage issue adopting a multi-pronged integrated programme approach to reduce child marriage and it’s adverse effects on girls and women. Their efforts include enhancing acceptance and availability of family and societal support for adolescents who intend to seek employment opportunities. Change makers like Phula, lata, Purnima and Bhumisuta have been motivated to form peer groups who take the burden of changing the attitude of family and community members.
Although miniscule in scale, the efforts taken by these brave girls have created a ripple in their communities that speak of the possibility of a big change in the society.