Deep into a village in Murshidabad in West Bengal we met this amazing bunch of teenage girls, who are among many in the area to have been carefully trained by a local NGO called Path in child rights. In a geography which is infamous for human trafficking under the veiled garb of child marriages, these empowered girls stand up against families who are trying to get their 12-13 year old daughters married off to 40-year olds, often leading to a situation of the children being trafficked into the sex trade. These spunky girls petition to the panchayat or call the childline hotline - whatever it takes - to stop child marriages in the area. 7 out of 10 times, they succeed. When they don't, it is because the families often get the children married off in the dead of the night.
One 15- year old chimed in during the conversation and said "It is both amusing and disturbing, that the parents of these children are afraid of us kids - and therefore marry off the children in the middle of the night so that we are not around to stop it."
This picture is produced with permission from the girls (and those who wanted to be in the picture but not seen, opted to keep their faces covered). As one of them put it, "Chobi nao toh didi, aar Facebook e teo diyo. Lokera januk toh amader ki korte hocche ekhane!" ("Take our picture didi, and put it up on Facebook too. People should know what we are having to deal with and do here!") #antihumantrafficking #childrights
