The pamphlet issued by Village Federation of the Self Help Groups, village: Chitlamkunta, block/mandal: Amrabad, district: Mahabubnagar, AP. HAQ: Centre for Child Rights B-1/2, Ground Floor Malviya Nagar, New Delhi-110017 +91-11-26673599 +91-11-41077977 +91-11-26677412 +91-11-26674688 (Fax) Email: info@haqcrc.org Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HaqCentreForChildRights/

1. IEC Material:
The pamphlet issued by Village Federation of the Self Help Groups, village: Chitlamkunta,
block/mandal: Amrabad, district: Mahabubnagar, AP.

3. Let us oppose marriages for children!
Let us build confidence in the girl child!!
For the last few years we have waged battles against child labour saying that the right
place for children is school. We involved everyone in the society in this task. Every one
of us strongly believed this principle and negotiated with school teachers, employers
and other sections and created a congenial environment for every child to join schools
and study. Particularly, the determination of girl children to defy the shackles of the
traditions and join education inspired many.
Now, the school going girls are facing different kind of problems. Certain people pass
obscene comments; writes awful things and gossip about them etc. are few of the
problems they are facing now.
In this back ground many of us think that marriage could be the best solution for this
problem and mistakenly concluding that marriage assuming that it will provide them
much required security. It is really worrying that many of us instead of providing better
security are imposing a tradition in the form of early marriage as the only alternative.
By getting married in the early age, girl children would be deprived of their childhood,
their growth comes to a standstill, leaving behind the joy of childhood she is thrown
into a vicious circle called married life. She is married off before understanding her own
self and gaining mental strength and physical fitness for marriage related responsibility.
Marriage entangles children who are otherwise to be playful and cheer up the people
around them! There are thousands of young girls in the villages who are waging lone
battles. It is the responsibility of elected representatives and officials to support the
girls in their struggles. How many of us know that the first born to such young married
girls will not survive even for a year? How many of us know the mental stress and agony
such young brides are undergoing? How many of us know that many such girls are
committing suicide?
Should our young girls be subjected to such terrific experiences? Do we tolerate if our
young sisters undergo this kind of tortures? How long our young girls should undergo all
these sufferings? Who will address this problem? What efforts did we make to solve
this problem? This is the high time that we should think about these issues. Let us
declare to the whole world that we will not tolerate any more such injustice happening
to our girl children.

4. Political Leaders, Elected Representatives, Officers and
Youth please listen…
Parents who intend to get their young girls married would seek the support of political
leaders and the elected representatives. Your ultimate goal must be to protect the child
rights. You should not succumb to any kinds of pressures in such cases.
This is the time, we should think of building the confidence of girl children. If we are
committed for the development of girls as individuals and to respect them, do not
entertain, support the proposals of marriages for young girls and contribute to evolve a
social norm. We must start opposing marriages for young girls, right from our home, our
village and our society.
 Elected representatives and political leaders should stand for protecting child rights
when there is a pressure on them to perform child marriage
 All the officers must initiate measures to stop child marriages
 Purohiths/ priests should declare that they will not be a party in the child marriages
 Parents and the village leaders should resolve not to perform marriages for young
girls
 All young men should take a pledge that they will not marry young girls
 Village Sarpanches should take up activities opposing child marriages
 All villagers must pledge to respect the dignity and rights of the girl child in the
school and outside the school
 All the members of the Self Help Groups should resolve not to perform marriage for
their young girls and strive to implement the same
Federation of Village Self Help Groups (GramaAikyaSangham)
Chitlamkunta (Amrabad Mandal), Mahaboobnagar District
M. V. Foundation
Child Rights Protection Forum