DES UNITED pe and strength to girls facing bleak futur e
d patience to train them. But now their thusiasm is incredible. I am hopeful the ort will help them shape their future.” Defender Kiran Gurjar, 11, was just a ddler when she was married to a boy from different village. Her mum has told her she will join her sband soon but said: “The idea scares me. terrifies me every time I think about it. I ve coming here. And I hate Sundays as there’s no football on Sundays. Football keeps me occupied and gives me little time to stress about my future.’
Karuna, 42, said girls in Rajasthan are not supposed to dream of falling in love or marriage because the idea is arranged for them before they even hit puberty.
She said: “Some girls are married off as infants. They’re still playing with dolls when they’re made to take their marriage vows. It is shocking but true and it’s still very prevalent in communities here.”
Twin sisters Sanju and Manju Gurjar, 13, were both married at five along with their younger sister who was only 15-days-old at the time.
The t wins dream of becoming a doctor and teacher but have been told they will simply have to be with their husbands.
Sanju said: “None of us want to join our husbands. We know our husbands’ names but we don’t know them. I think our parents were going to send us to our husbands over the next couple of years but now we’re playing football they don’t talk about it so much.
“If I can persuade them to delay the gauna (a ceremony linked to consummation) then, hopefully, in time, I can persuade them to annul the marriages also. If it doesn’t work, at least I can enjoy playing football until I am sent to my husband.” Indira Pancholi, a consultant of HAQ, said: “It is such a joy to see girls shed their fears and wear shorts and run around a field with a ball and be like other children. But there is still a long way to go.” One in three child brides in the world is from India, says Unicef. Child marriages in India are not legal but poor rural families see girls as a financial burden and prefer to hand over responsibility for them to a husband. Is it estimated that 27 per cent of girls in India are married before they turn 18.