Educate, don’t marry: Shiksha Chaupal campaign in Bihar sparks hope for young girls

Child marriage is common in the village. Nidhi tells us about her friend Madhu, from her previous class, who is getting married in 2024. “She wanted to study and we even helped her with extra classes to help her cope with her studies, but her tutor wanted to marry her. She was one of five sisters. We even tried to convince her mother to let her study until 10th grade, maybe she could try some job or the other if she had that qualification. Her guardian scolded me for being a little child and trying to convince her against her wishes,” said Nidhi.

Soon after this incident, in October 2024, Nidhi and her mother were involved in a campaign called “Shiksha Chaupal” under Shikshagraha, where they both took an oath to continue their studies at least up to class 12. Nidhi and his mother were among the 68,000 students. others who took the oath.

Nidhi added, “If this oath taking had taken place just a few days ago, Madhu could be saved from child marriage. »

Like Nidhi, two others we spoke to were also expected to be married off if the families had not taken an oath to complete girls’ education up to at least class 12. Organized in seven districts of Bihar, the campaign saw wide participation from all members. of society.

“I was the first girl from my village to enter a university, and that changed everything for me and for the young girls in my village who saw that it was possible,” said Ms. Kumari Shibulal, President philanthropic initiatives of the Shibulal family. , which supports the Shikshagraha movement. “Quality education is a gateway to completely different life trajectories, especially for girls. This is why I deeply support Shikshāgraha’s emphasis on gender equality. »

HerZindagi spoke with more families who took the oath and the stakeholders behind the campaign to better understand its purpose and effects.

Child marriage rates in India have fallen, but not enough

According to a 2023 UNICEF report, despite falling rates of child marriage, the country still has one in three child brides worldwide.

Statistically, more than 23%, or one in four young women in India, were married before the age of 18.

Some states had a higher prevalence of child marriage than others. The report said that more than half of Indian girls and women married during childhood lived in five states: Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.

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The report adds that child marriage has lifelong consequences for girls and their families, with repercussions that span generations. Married girls often give birth in their teens and rarely continue their education after marriage.

One example cited includes married children who are more likely to report that wife beating is justified, and even to experience such violence themselves. Ending child marriage by 2030 is one of the Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations in 2015.

One of the key ways to tackle the problem of child marriage and find a way to empower young women was to ensure their access and engagement in education.

Shiksha Chaupal: a campaign to continue girls’ education

Shikshagraha is the people’s movement for educational equity. As participants in Shikshagraha, half a dozen women’s federations from Bihar, in partnership with Mantra4Change and ShikshaLokam, organized Shiksha Chaupal in seven districts of Bihar. They launched this campaign during Navratri, a festival where a goddess is worshiped for nine days.

They focused their campaign on the question of why a society that worships goddesses does not provide its women with the right to education and equality. Navratri being a time when families go out and gather in different places has helped bring people together organically.

One of the core principles of the campaign is to work with communities – rather than around them – to co-
involve all stakeholders in the journey towards gender equity and ensure sustainability. Male
Members, village elders, panchayat members, teachers and local government leaders have been actively engaged in shaping and supporting this transformation.

Lucky Kumari, a member involved in awareness raising, said: “We got married very young and we suffered for it. We don’t want more girls to experience what we experienced.

Those present pledged by extending their hand or placing their hand on the burning diya to educate their daughters at least up to 12th standard.

Rangolis, slogans and signatures on the fabric were also part of the event at many places.

Why Shiksha Chaupal was initiated in Bihar

Bihar was chosen as the first state to launch the Shiksha Chaupal campaign as it is one of the most socio-economically deprived states in India. It also ranks last in the country on indicators for SDG 4 – Quality Education.

Bihar has the highest rate of child marriage in India, with 40% of girls marrying before the legal age of 18 (NFHS-5, 2022). At 11%, nearly double the national average of 6.8%, adolescents
Pregnancies have a significant impact on girls’ ability to continue their education. The secondary school dropout rate is 21.4% for girls, higher than for boys.

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Obstacles to girls’ education

All three families we spoke with highlighted poverty as the main reason they stopped their daughter’s education.

Chunchun Devi pointed out that her husband works as a laborer and she works in the fields to make ends meet. Facing education fees and other related costs is always a worry for three children. “My daughter went to school without eating for ten days because I couldn’t prepare food for her. She refuses to miss school. The school is more than 2 km away and there is no transport, so she cried for 15 days to get a bike. After that, his father agreed to buy him a bicycle. We bought a second hand bike for INR 3000. Now she goes to school with it.

Nidhi is determined to complete her studies and says she will ask the campaign members for help if necessary. Girl who loves school, her favorite subject is science. She aspires to become a police officer one day.

Patriarchy also plays its role in pushing women to drop out of school. Neighbors often question Chunchun Devi about girls’ education, telling her that if Nidhi dropped out of school, she could instead help her mother at work or at home.

In another family, mother Savita Devi said she was struggling to continue her daughter’s education, but another relative is funding her son’s education. Her son is in class 10 and lives in a hostel, and her daughter Anushka Kumari is in class 9. She said, “An uncle is financing my sons’ education, but he is not willing to help us with other of our children. Anushka’s marriage was arranged with a boy but was called off after the mother-daughter duo took oath as part of Shiksha Chaupal.

Social factors such as the perception that younger girls need less dowry and stigma against highly educated brides also contribute to parents wanting to marry off their daughters, instead of completing their education.

The way forward

The way forward for Shikshagraha involves tackling core socio-cultural issues and working more deeply with the community to ensure girls’ access to education. Shiksha Chaupals will become a key vehicle for this.

“As we look to the future, tackling poverty and gender inequality remains at the heart of our mission,” said Anubhuti Srivastava, program manager at Shiksha Lokam. “We know that empowering women and girls is crucial to breaking the cycle of poverty and poverty. build stronger communities.

These initiatives ultimately aim to empower women and improve their lives.

She said: “By prioritizing gender equity in education and leadership opportunities, we are creating pathways for young women to break through the barriers of poverty, enabling them to contribute meaningfully to their communities and to society as a whole. Our vision is to ensure that every girl, regardless of where she is born, has the tools and support she needs to thrive and build a better future. »

The movement, however, must be a community initiative, where all stakeholders are aligned on the mission.

Khushboo Awasthi, co-founder of Mantra4Change and Shikshagraha said, “To make education accessible, high quality and meaningful for our children, many of these deeply ingrained beliefs and practices need to be challenged and changed. This is why we see Shikshagraha as a movement. A movement thrives when there is aligned action between government, NGOs and communities. When communities take ownership of identifying their socio-cultural challenges and solving them at the local level, as we saw in the case of the crisis. Shiksha Chaupals, lasting change is happening. When governments and NGOs co-create such spaces and listen carefully to these challenges, they can design programs that are far more impactful. Together, these efforts have the potential to catalyze exponential change and realize the education dream. fairness for our country is possible. At Shikshāgraha, we are deeply committed to fostering multi-stakeholder partnerships across India.