Campaign Story
About the project
The urban slums of Varanasi fall within the heartland of a diverse range of communities in Uttar Pradesh with very conservative social practices. Among the most significant of these is child marriage. Not only is the practice deeply embedded in these communities, but its effects are amplified by poverty and migration for labor. Girls are often married off to ensure their safety or to lessen the economic load on the family. However, child marriage, and all the gender-based bias that surrounds it, not only impacts a girl’s health and wellbeing, it forever takes away her chance to get an education and fulfill her own goals.
Making a difference
Long-term change for children is only truly possible when the community gets behind the cause as well. CRY America project SSRF reaches out to children, their families, and their communities to change how they see child marriage and girls’ education. In addition to door-to-door outreach, the project sets up children’s and adolescent girls’ collectives to help monitor and address cases of planned child marriages, girls dropping out of school, and individual problems that girls face in the challenging neighborhoods they live in.
Action during COVID times
2,400 households were provided dry rations, 7,500 masks were distributed to frontline workers, and 600 hygiene kits were given to adolescent girls. In the worst phase of the lockdown, some SSRF staff members even took the initiative to produce sanitary pads for the girls themselves – a story featured on NDTV.
2020 Grant Disbursed = $26,480
The way forward
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Project Impact (2020)
4,530
Children impacted
9
Villages/slums covered
2,580
Children in schools (6-18 yrs)
240
Children mainstreamed into schools
8
Child marriages stopped
324
Children in children’s collectives
159
Children received health check-ups
132
Adolescent girls’ collectives
Current years’s budget
Last year’s budget
Lockdown Weddings – How Khadija and Savitri Narrowly Escaped Becoming Child Brides
For many girls in Varanasi, child marriage hits them like a storm – one day they may be playing with their friends at school, the next they are at the altar with a man they barely know. This was how Khadija and Savitri’s lives were going to unfold (names changed to protect child’s privacy).
16-year-old Khadija’s family was feeling the financial shock of the lockdown and decided to get her married to relieve the family burden. Not far off, wedding preparations were underway for Savitri, a minor getting married to a 35-year-old man and suspected child trafficker.
Luckily, both girls were part of CRY America project SSRF’s adolescent girls’ collectives. Through their alert groups, the staff learned about these weddings and worked with the Child Welfare Committee and police to stop them.
The two girls now have a second of life! Yet, it’s hard to imagine what would have happened if help from CRY America hadn’t arrived in time. Stories like theirs are only possible thanks to the kindness of our donors.
