Ring the bell Initiative - Fighting against the child marriage in Bihar.

“By 2020, 142 million innocent young girls worldwide will be separated from their friends and family, deprived of an education and put in harm’s way because of child marriage.” -Ban Ki-moon, U.N. Secretary-General.

Source : freethoughtblogs.com

Recently I came across an earnest effort of the indiblogger and Breakthrough coming together to increase awareness among the youth about the violence against women. In a country like India, where inspite of progress and economic freedom , the patriarchal approach to almost everything in the society is still very apparent. Growing up like me in a small town , there is a tendency to look down upon the women in your life, simply because of our social practice. One cannot point fingers at a single person/group for this mentality. On the other hand, this mentality has been changing quite dramatically in the urban area. That is a welcome relief and a move ahead in the right direction. Sadly, even today we have this weird practice of lower official age of marriage for women (The logic that women get early mental maturity is as archaic and non-scientific as any other social superstition that is prevailant.). We have a long and tortuous road ahead in achieving the utopic gender equality.


One startling fact that I came across in the recent past was, about 70 % of the marriages in Bihar, involve girls below the age of 18. This fact is a real eye opener. Its high time we retrospect, make a cautious effort to change the way society looks at these problems. Bihar is a state attired with natural beauty and resources. Still it is of India's least developed states. I have not made enough research to substantiate my claims, but I solely claim this on the fact that if I get an opportunity to move to Patna professionally, I would most probably pass off that opportunity. More on the central problem thats addressed here, a simple google search about child marriage directed me to this article. Simply put, the article points out there very minimal progress has been seen in the last 20 years as far as child marriages are concerned, ably backed by substantial statistical data. This is a scary trend. Ironically  during times when the economic and social progress have exponentially improved, peoples' awareness to the vice of child marriage in bihar has been grossly neglected.

Education, though may not be the ultimate solution for such a deep rooted vice in the society, it is most  definitely the very basic step in the right direction. Importance of education cannot be stated enough. There is no better way to liberate people, particularly women than a proper education. Education is a life long process. You keep learning new things every second. The schooling and college education helps us to streamline ourselves to keep the learning process going till we perish. As a novice, a raw diamond we enter school. Its one of the most beautiful and essential part of the development of ones' personality. Education is much more than the technical prowess that we attain. It helps us change the outlook towards life. It helps us understand our strengths and not to rood over our weaknesses. 

Eradicating the child marriage is no simple task. Like diamond formation, it requires two things. Time and pressure. Let us spend enough time and exert more than enough pressure, to ensure that future generations can enjoy a society that provides equal opportunity to everyone.

P.S This is a post written to spread the word about Ring The Bell initiative from indiblogger. For every 50 entries received about Ring the bell intiative, One lakh INR will be donated towards training self-help groups, community-based organizations and youth in the state of Bihar.