Generating awareness on girls’ rights in remote villages
LUCKNOW: While most protests and rallies against gender discrimination are organised in premier locations of the city for maximum visibility, an NGO is working quietly to take the message to remote villages through its ‘India's Daughters' Campaign’ (IDC).
This is the sixth edition of the Study Hall Educational Foundation’s annual campaign aimed at creating awareness on girls’ rights. This year, it is reaching out to people in all 75 districts of the state.
Girls from 746 Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBVs) are participating in the drive, taking out rallies and organising signature campaigns against child marriage. Several other schools have also been roped in to bolster the campaign.
Urvashi Sahni, founding president and CEO, Study Hall Educational Foundation, said, “IDC is an annual girls’ rights campaign started by our foundation in 2013 with the understanding that girls in India are not safe inside wombs, on the streets and even at homes. They are sold into sexual bondage under the guise of child marriage. Many don’t even comprehend the violations they endure throughout life.”
So far, six rallies have been taken out in Lucknow by students of Prerna Girls’ School and Vidyasthali School.
These rallies go beyond sloganeering. Volunteers talk to residents of the areas where the rallies are taken out and urge them to sign a pledge to not marry off their daughters before they turn 18 years of age, and also to provide for their education.
“IDC works with close to 1,000 schools to initiate discussions on the subject and build community campaigns. It connects all child protection agencies with schools. It also reaches out to influencers who sanction child marriage -- the faith leaders -and brings them on board with our cause,” said Anand Chitavanshi, director, Digital Study Hall.
“So far, we have reached out to 12,000 children, 765 schools and 382,500 community members through 765 rallies in 73 districts. We plan to take this initiative further and build on our past successes to ensure that every district in UP is positively affected by this initiative. We will turn our attention to the web campaign too, with entries for ‘letter to CM’, ‘poster-making’ and ‘poetry’ competitions,” said Chitavanshi.