States » NorthPosted at: Nov 1 2026 8:09PM


UP: NGO prevents child marriage in Lucknow

Lucknow, Nov 1 (UNI) A social organisation based in Uttar Pradesh has secured the childhood of a 14-year-old innocent girl by preventing her marriage to an older man, ensuring that she could complete her education and pursue her dreams.
When the girl's mother, Sunita Kumari (name changed), learnt that her husband had arranged her daughter Asha’s (name changed) marriage to an older man, she was gripped by a fear she knew all too well, having endured years of domestic violence herself.
Sunita had left her marital home years ago and lived separately in the same village in Ayodhya, keeping her distance from her husband. But she continued to follow her daughter’s well-being from afar. Remembering awareness programmes on child marriage conducted by Aparajita Samajik Samiti, she contacted one of its coordinators and sought help, requesting that her identity remain confidential.
The organisation alerted the police, district administration and Child Welfare Committee (CWC), and a team intervened. Aparajita Samajik Samiti is a partner of Just Rights for Children, India’s largest child protection network with over 300 NGO partners across 782 districts. The network works closely with district administrations and police, conducts pledge ceremonies and runs awareness programmes on child marriage laws.
During counselling, Asha said she feared returning to her father’s home and wanted to live with her mother. Her father was made to sign an undertaking that he would not arrange her marriage before she turned 18. Asha is now staying with Sunita and has re-enrolled in school, while the organisation continues to monitor her safety.
Sunita could not undo the suffering she had endured, but she could ensure that her daughter did not have to walk the same path. In choosing to speak up, she gave Asha something that had been denied to so many girls before her: the chance to grow up without having her future decided for her.
A childhood should not end with wedding preparations. Yet, across India, girls continue to face the prospect of marriage at an age when their education is only beginning to open doors and their understanding of the world is still taking shape. Behind every such marriage is a childhood interrupted, a classroom potentially abandoned and a future narrowed by decisions a girl may have had little say in making.
Why should a girl have to give up school at an age when her education is only beginning to open doors? Child marriage persists for several reasons, including poverty, concerns about safety and deeply entrenched social attitudes. But these justifications often conceal a troubling assumption — that a girl’s future is a burden to be managed rather than a life full of possibilities to be nurtured. The consequences can last for years. Early marriage can force girls out of school, limit their economic independence and expose them to health risks, violence and unequal relationships. Education offers a different path: it gives girls the knowledge to understand their rights, the confidence to speak for themselves and the skills to build independent lives.
India has made progress in reducing child marriage, but the challenge remains significant. Figures from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) show that the proportion of women aged 20-24 who were married before 18 declined from 23.3 per cent to 20.1 pc. This progress is encouraging, but the fact that roughly one in five young women in India were married as children shows how much remains to be done.
Just Rights for Children is among those working to change this reality. Through collaboration with more than 300 partners and the government, the network reports having prevented over 6 lakh child marriages. It has also linked 36,60,796 vulnerable families to social welfare schemes, supported 2,45,992 families in re-enrolling children who had dropped out of school and connected 2,02,918 school-going girls to scholarship programmes.
The government’s Bal Vivah Mukt Bharat campaign has stepped up efforts to end child marriage, but meaningful change also depends on everyday decisions made at home and within communities. Scholarships, bicycles, safe transport, clean school toilets, vocational training and opportunities for women to earn can help families see education as a viable investment in their daughters’ futures. Teachers, panchayat representatives, faith leaders, Anganwadi workers, neighbours and relatives must also be ready to speak up when a minor is at risk. Anyone aware of a planned child marriage can contact the Child Helpline at 1098 or alert the authorities.
As November 27, the International Day for the Elimination of Child, Early and Forced Marriage, approaches, the urgency of this fight deserves renewed attention. Ending child marriage requires more than stopping a wedding at the last moment. It means building communities where girls are encouraged to stay in school, where mothers can seek help without fear and where families see their daughters’ ambitions as possibilities to be supported rather than obstacles to be overcome.
For Sunita, the intervention meant that her daughter could return to school instead of being pushed into a marriage she did not want. For Asha, it meant having the opportunity to imagine a future beyond the one someone else had planned for her.
Every girl deserves the time to learn, grow and discover who she wants to become before being expected to take on the responsibilities of adulthood. Keeping daughters in school is not simply about preventing child marriage; it is about giving them the choice to dream, the confidence to pursue those dreams and the freedom to decide their own futures. No mother should have to watch her daughter relive her own suffering, and no girl should have to surrender her childhood to a wedding she never chose.
UNI MBD SS
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