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<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2018/11/feature-in-india-women-boycott-weddings-with-child-brides">http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2018/11/feature-in-india-women-boycott-weddings-with-child-brides</a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C">India - Women Boycott Weddings with Child Brides
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C">Across five rural Indian states, thousands of women have joined Women Peer Groups, which
are using everything from protests to pledging ceremonies as part of a UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women-supported violence-prevention programme for ethnic minority women.
</span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C"><img border="0" width="720" height="480" id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image002.jpg@01D4827F.C34B5AA0" alt="Malti Tudu speaking about the women rights awareness to village women during a meeting at Simalbari village in Kishanganj Tehsil of Kishanganj district in Bihar, India. Photo: UN Women/Biju Boro"></span><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C">Malti Tudu speaking about the women rights awareness to village women during a meeting at Simalbari village in Kishanganj Tehsil of Kishanganj district
in Bihar, India. Photo: UN Women/Biju Boro<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C">You could call 20-year-old Malti Tudu a wedding crasher. Only her goal is to stop the wedding
from ever getting started.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C">At least when the bride-to-be is a child.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C">“If all people start boycotting such weddings, it would definitely help eliminate child marriage,”
says Ms. Tudu, from Simalbari village, Kishanganj district, in India’s Bitar.[</span><a href="http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2018/11/feature-in-india-women-boycott-weddings-with-child-brides#notes"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C;text-decoration:none">1</span></a><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C">]
state. “People are needed during a marriage ceremony—a priest to perform the religious rites, musical band to play the music, cook to prepare the food for the guests, and guests to give their blessings to the newlyweds.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C">Ms. Tudu, barely out of her teens at 20 years old herself, is one of<b> the
</b>young women leaders from Bihar who are trying to stop child marriage in their communities.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C">In the officially categorized Santhal Scheduled caste and tribe (to which Ms. Tudu and the
majority in her district belong), 74.1 per cent of women and girls are married before age 18, as opposed to 42.6 per cent from other communities.[</span><a href="http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2018/11/feature-in-india-women-boycott-weddings-with-child-brides#notes"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C;text-decoration:none">2</span></a><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C">]<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C">To prevent such weddings, Women’s Peer Group are drumming up support through meetings in which
leaders ask participants to pledge that they wouldn’t have their daughters married underage—or attend such weddings. After the pledging ceremony, they lead rallies in their villages to spread awareness about the negative impacts of child marriage.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C">Globally, an estimated
</span><a href="http://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/ending-violence-against-women/facts-and-figures"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C;text-decoration:none">650 million</span></a><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C">
women and girls alive today were married before age 18. Child marriage often results in early pregnancy, interrupts schooling, limits girls’ opportunities and increases their risk of experiencing domestic violence.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C">Ms. Tudu doesn’t shy away from new tactics. Once even took a group of women to visit the parents
of a 16-year-old girl whose marriage was being arranged.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C">“Her parents shouted at us, saying that they are in-charge of their daughter’s future… that
they had done it before and the wedding was attended by many people,” </span><a href="http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2018/11/from-where-i-stand-malti-tudu"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C;text-decoration:none">she
explains.</span></a><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C">Faced with their resistance, Ms. Tudu and her group asked everyone they could in the village
not to attend the wedding. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C">They returned to the girl’s house a second time with more village support, and spoke to her,
discovering that she wanted to finish her studies. When the group checked in again a few weeks later, her parents had called off the marriage and the girl was continuing with her studies.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C">“I saved a life from getting destroyed,” says Ms. Tudu, proudly. “Sensitization is the key
to reducing such cases.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C">She says the training on psychosocial support she received from the local organization Pragya,
helped her build her skills in counselling and fuel her activism. The initiative is funded by the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women (UN Trust Fund), managed by UN Women on behalf of the UN system.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C"><img border="0" width="720" height="480" id="Picture_x0020_7" src="cid:image004.jpg@01D4827F.C34B5AA0" alt="Talamai Soren speaking about the women rights awareness to village women during a meeting at Lamba Basti village in Kishanganj district in Bihar, India.. Photo: UN Women/Biju Boro"></span><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C">Talamai Soren speaking about the women rights awareness to village women during a meeting at Lamba Basti village in Kishanganj district in Bihar, India.
Photo: UN Women/Biju Boro<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C">Similar efforts are underway in the Lamba Basti village, also in Kishanganj district, led by
35-year-old Talamai Soren. Married at the age of 15 herself, she knows all too well the kind of risks involved. She believes emphasizing education for girls is a good way to reduce the risk of child marriage, and the efforts of the Women’s Peer Group have
reduced it to a certain extent.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C">In Baliadhangi village, 21-year-old Niska Pushpa Marandi also talks to women about the legal
implications of child marriage and dowry transactions, which is a criminal offence and carries a jail term. “After taking the oath, none of you will get your underage children married off and you must also never attend weddings where legally underaged people
are getting married or people are accepting and offering dowry,” she urges people to promise.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C">According to Lorna Mesina from the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women, “the Pragya
project has a lot of local support and capitalizes on the strength of local community groups, like the village councils and women’s peer groups, which makes it sustainable.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C">The programme uses awareness-raising and mobilization of the women and the community to act
against violence. It also seeks to ensure more effective support services and responses, such as remedial counselling and legal and medical aid to survivors of violence.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">__________________________________________<o:p></o:p></p>
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