19 year old girl stopped the marriage of 8 girls: Rape threat received, mother and sister scared everyone, stones were also thrown, but did not stop

In a village of Siliguri, 19-year-old Koel Sarkar has been making people aware against child marriage for the last seven years. Koel, along with some girls, has stopped child marriage in her village and many nearby villages. In the last two years, he has stopped 8 marriages. Due to this, he and his family have to face a lot, but even after all this, he is adamant about his work.

Stones were thrown at my house, received rape-murder threats

When I started working against child marriage, I was harassed a lot. Many times men threw stones at my house. I received threats of rape and murder. My mother and sister were followed. They threatened my mother. My mother was told that they would do bad things to me while returning from school or tuitions. Once someone threw a stone at me, after which I stopped going to tuitions. Most of the groom or his family members would have been behind the threats and attacks that I received.

1500 girls from 65 villages in ‘Girl Power Group’

She is the head of ‘Girl Power Group’ in her village. There are 25 girls in this group. This group of girls is supported by NGO World Vision India. More than 1500 girls from 65 villages in three blocks of Darjeeling are part of this group. All these girls make their age and the rest of the village aware on issues like child rights, trafficking and child marriage. Koel makes public announcements in the local market to make people aware of child marriage. Along with street plays, she talks to the people of her community.

Makes planning by knowing the date of marriage

Other girls in the group also give tips to people. In many cases, the cuckoos try to meet the young girl who is in talks to get married. In a matter of things, she tries to find out the time and date of marriage. After that, she makes a strategy to stop that marriage. Once to stop the marriage, the cuckoo prepared himself to attend the wedding ceremony.

The thought of help came from the lessons learned in mother’s life

Koel says- She knows how forced marriage at a young age ruins your dreams. My mother got married at the age of 17. At that time my father was 35 years old. When I was two and a half years old, my father left the family. My mother loved to read. Apart from this, he was interested in many things. But everything had to be left behind. Child marriage has increased after Kovid. Due to the Kovid protocol, the burden of marriage on the parents has been reduced. According to Koel, one of the reasons for child marriage is the safety of the daughter. Parents are also doing child marriage so that their daughter does not run away after falling in love with someone.