Ending child marriage #JustAChild
Shuttered schools, rising poverty and social isolation during the Covid 19 Lockdowns have nudged many families to marry off their young daughters. Child marriages, though against the law, are on the rise. Join us in this campaign #JustAChild and help put an end to child marriages.
Please click on these links to see the video:
Hear Sakshi’s personal appeal to prevent child marriages
We would like to thank Actor Sakshi Tanwar who has kindly agreed to be spokesperson for the campaign, Pradip Sarkar for directing the film and Folk Singer Ila Arun for giving us the background score. Mayur Varma and Sumanto from 82.5 conceptualised the video and most importantly, we received great support from the Minister for Women and Child (GOM) Yashomati Thakur for the 2 month campaign.
The Phenomenon of Child Marriage
One in ten of India’s child brides lives in Maharashtra. The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the situation for young girls. Over the last year 2020-21, despite the lockdowns and travel restrictions, 790 child marriages were prevented from occurring across the state of Maharashtra through joint action of Department of Women and Child Development (DWCD), CHILDLINE, Police and Civil Society Organisations. 88 child marriages were prevented in Solapur, followed by 62 in Aurangabad, 45 in Osmanabad, 45 in Nanded, 42 in Yavatmal, and 40 in Beed.
The Launch of a Campaign
Taking a serious note of the surge in child marriages during COVID-19 , Akshara Centre initiated a public awareness campaign in collaboration with the Department of Women and Child Development and UNICEF. They launched a state wide campaign from 5th August, 2021 to September, 2021 to spread awareness, share information and success stories through social media, reach out to parents for counselling, rope in front line workers, communities and civil society to prevent child marriages. The campaign was launched by the Minister DWCD Advocate Yashomati Thakur and Nirmala Sawant Prabhavalkar along with Akshara Centre and UNICEF.
Do join us in this campaign to end child marriage #JustAChild
GET IN TOUCH
We would love to hear from you! There are several ways we can help each other. You can volunteer with us or you can donate money. In case you would like to contact us, do drop us a line at: akshara.frea@gmail.com
If you would like to assist Akshara’s efforts by volunteering or interning with us, please get in touch by filling in the attached form and emailing it to us. Give us an idea of what sort of time and skills you have, so we can hook you up with one of our programs. Your expertise is needed for our growing organisation.
We welcome individual and organisational donations. Choose which program you would like to donate to? Read our Annual Report and decide to support youth as gender advocates, sponsor underprivileged girls’ education or make the city safer for women.
If you are looking to working with us. We offer full time and part time or freelancing possibilities. It’s a great small and friendly team. Please send us your resume.
Our postal address is:
Akshara Centre
Dhuru Bldg, 2nd floor, opp Bank of Maharashtra
Gokhale Road, Dadar West,
Mumbai 400028, India
Tel: 022 24328699
Email: akshara.frea@gmail.com