2025 Gave Girls the Voice to Fight against Child Marriage

What does it take for a centuries-old social crime, embedded deep within the fabric of a society, to end finally? Government commitment? Policy shifts? Community momentum? Laws that clearly name the crime for what it is? Systemic reforms across the entire ecosystem?

The answer is yes to all.

Without each of these pillars working together, any attempt to strike at a deeply rooted social crime remains either ineffective or fraught with unintended consequences. But there is something else, too. When the victims or the ones most vulnerable decide to speak up, the shift is monumental and the end of the crime much closer.

This is what 2025 witnessed as India brought together its various pillars to bring an end to child marriage. During the year, government of India gave further impetus to its 'Bal Vivah Mukt Bharat' (BVMB) campaign and flagged off a 100-day intensive campaign as part of BVMB, state governments stepped up their stance, passed bills and formulated policies fastening the noose around the crime of child marriage, civil society organizations further bolstered their tie-ups with administrations and communities to spread awareness and escalate interventions and the country together looked in control and closer to the 2030 goal of ending child marriage. But something else shifted during this year, too.

Girls and women decided to speak up for themselves, their daughters, friends and sisters. They decided to take the reins of their lives in their own hands, and dared to dream and make way for that dream. And the result from across the country was for everyone to see. In the year 2025, over one lakh child marriages were stopped by the close coordination between the governments, administration, law enforcement agencies and Just Rights for Children, which is one of the largest networks of NGOs with over 250 partners working across 451 districts in India. And most of these child marriages were stopped because someone, mostly a child or her mother or sister, decided to dial a helpline number or approach an NGO or confided in their teachers seeking help.

Here are five such real-life stories of young girls who stopped their own child marriages and of mothers who fought against their own families, society and people to save their daughters.

Rajasthan: When One Voice Saved Seven Child Marriages

Sixteen-year-old Vaishnavi (name changed) lives in a village in Bhilwara district of Rajasthan, and like every other child her age, she had no voice or power. Until that one day when she found that she was getting married and had to discontinue school. What stunned her further was the knowledge that her six siblings were also being married on the same day. Her youngest sister was barely six.
The next day, Vaishnavi went to school and narrated the entire ordeal to her principal, who immediately got in touch with Just Rights for Children partner in the district 'Navachar Sansthan'. The NGO team investigated on their end, and on the day of the wedding, they reached the venue along with police officials. That day, not one or two, but seven child marriages were stopped because one child decided to speak up.

Bihar: A 13-year-old Learned the Law and Saved Herself

Sapana (name changed) lived in a small, mostly unnoticed, village in Bihar's Samastipur. Marriage of 13-year-olds is a norm there, and so her parents did not expect Sapana to protest when they told her about her impending marriage soon. But protest she did.

Sapana attended a 'Child Marriage Free India' awareness campaign organised by NGO Jawahar Jyoti Bal Vikas Kendra later that week. There, she came to know that the legal age for marriage of a girl is 18, and anyone forcing a child into marriage is liable for jail and punishment. Though she wanted to, Sapana couldn't muster the courage to speak up, but her teary eyes narrated her story.

The next morning, a team comprising members of the law enforcement agencies, Panchayat members and the NGO members visited her house. The team talked to the family members and counselled them. The parents were unaware that marrying off their 13-year-old child was a crime.

Today, Sapana is no longer just dreaming of education. She is living her dream without any fear of child marriage stifling her future.

From Nervous Glances to Bold Voices: How Girls Fought Child Marriage in Jhansi

It was just another day for the members of an NGO visiting a village in Jhansi as they held an awareness programme on child marriage. Villagers trickled in, and as the session went on, a group of teenage girls seated quietly in a corner began shifting uneasily and nervously.

Years of experience in child protection had taught the members of Bundelkhand Seva Sansthan to notice such signs of anxiety. After the session ended, the NGO workers spoke with ASHA workers and asked if they could meet Neha in private. Building rapport and trust, they finally encouraged her to open up. What she shared shocked them.

"She told us that her friend Komal (name changed), just 16, was being forced into marriage. Komal's parents, daily wage labourers, feared she might fall in love and elope. But Komal had told Neha firmly, "I will not elope with anyone. But if they marry me now, I will run away from home."

The NGO team, along with ASHA workers, visited Komal's home. Her parents admitted they were marrying her off because they feared she might elope with someone else. After hours of counselling, they relented and signed an undertaking promising not to marry Komal before she turned 18.

How Andhra's Shreeparna Saved Her Future and Her Dreams

Shreeparna (name changed), a 16-year-old girl from Andhra Pradesh's Krishna, always wanted to be able to earn and stand on her own feet. So, after completing Class X, Shreeparna enrolled in a residential course for Medical Lab Technician training in Krishna district. At the college, she befriended 25-year-old Sai, who was preparing for the police constable exams. When news of their closeness reached home, panic set in, and the parents pulled her out of college and brought her back to the village, and in no time, they fixed her marriage. A panic-struck Shreeparna approached the Aanganwadi teacher in her village, who immediately contacted Vasavya Mahila Mandali (VMM), a local partner of Just Rights for Children (JRC). VMM coordinated with the child helpline, the Police, and the Integrated Child Development Services, and together, they visited Shreeparna's house.
The parents resisted. But the team made it clear: child marriage is illegal. The parents finally relented and signed a formal undertaking promising not to marry her off before she turned 18.

Ayodhya: When a Mother Broke the Cycle

When Sunita Devi (name changed) in a village in Ayodhya heard that her alcoholic husband was planning to marry off their 14-year-old daughter to a middle-aged man, she was shaken. The memories of being brutally beaten by her drunk husband and her decision to leave the house in the middle of the night came rushing back. Though she did not live with her husband or daughter anymore, she always ensured that she knew about her daughter's well-being.

So when the news came to her, she immediately contacted Aparajita Samajik Samiti, an NGO she had often heard of. She knew that the NGO, a JRC partner, stopped child marriages in the district.

She immediately called one of our coordinators and asked for help, but requested complete anonymity. The NGO alerted the district administration, the Child Welfare Committee and the police and a joint team reached Manju's house. Her father was taken to the police station for questioning. Manju was produced before the Child Welfare Committee, where she said that she did not want to return to her father's house and wanted to stay with her elder sister. Not only was the marriage stopped, but Manju was also sent to her sister's house, where she now lives safely. Meanwhile, Sunita Devi continues to live separately, distant but relieved, knowing that her daughter has been spared the fate she herself once endured.

These cases are not an exception. They are a reflection of the quiet battles thousands of girls are fighting every day now. Each of these children is the story and the success of the year gone by. Each of these successes is proof that 2025 was the year when India's pace towards becoming child marriage free became faster, steadier and more plausible.