Stop Child Marriage!

Written by Nikita Jose

More than 47% Indian girls are married before the age of 18, which accounts for almost 1 in 2 girls in the country. Despite decades of efforts, child marriage is still rampant in India. While a large number of child marriages in working communities are a result of poverty, fear of dowry and lack of safety for girls, a big number of marriages are still done by rich, Savarna families who believe in the concept to perpetuate caste based endogamy, fear of purity of women and early decisions on inheritance. The term “child marriage” may call to mind young girls, but most girls who marry before age 18 are adolescents. Rates of marriage among girls under age 15 have been falling more than twice as fast compared to girls between 15 and 18. Early marriages and pregnancies trap young children in intergenerational gender inequality, a cycle of poor physical and mental health, limited opportunities and lack of agency. 

To address this social evil, we chose an age-old Indian tradition of storytelling through street theatre; a rendition musical play of 1905 Bangla feminist utopian story Sultana’s Dream written by Begum Rokeya felt like a good place to start. We began exploring structures and ideas using dramatic forms, styles, techniques and  theatrical conventions. As we crafted the script, composed the music, and built the set, the play began to come together in small fragments. The play was directed by our team and performed by children of informal workers

We began our daily lessons with community children aged 6-14. Full of energy and opinions, the children were eager to show off their talents and to learn new things. A six year boy was adamant about only singing Ghazals and interestingly has taken up the stage name of Ghazal already! Watching them pick up everything so naturally, I thought about rhythm more than ever during this project. For those of us who’ve had access to school education, art and performance is encouraged in various ways. But when children are denied structured education, art and performance is often seen as a luxury. We wanted to erase this barrier of access between art and our children. We helped them find their rhythm through body percussion, realistic and abstract movements, group activities and vocal exercises. Soon, they developed the confidence, order and focus one needs for performance. We used vibrant colours, large-scale visual imagery, background music, symbols, props,  signs and slogans to elevate the visual impact of the play.

At each stage, we had conversations with the children about why we are doing this, what it is like to be a girl in our own worlds, the possibilities, the tragedies and what not. I can’t think of more feminist conversations I have had recently. This was a children’s protest against child marriage, in the form of a street-play.

Decked up on their final day of performance, the children pulled all stops on stage! The community members listened to them with pin-drop silence and many agreed verbally with the dialogues. As we closed the day with handing the children certificates of excellence amidst loud applause, the little artists had the brightest faces we’ve seen in a while. 

This little play of ours has reached over 2000 working community members and children, urging them to stop child marriage, educating them on the dangers and enabling them to access help and resources if required. But we still wonder, what messaging would enlighten privileged families to discontinue this illegal practice of social evil?

Our play script is available to download here in English for community use per Creative Commons License rules

Under Creative Commons License © Sultana's Dream-SAY NO TO CHILD MARRIAGE-A street play by Garima Trust © 2024 licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.