NEELAM KUMARI, 10, SARITA TYAGI, 17, SUNITA DEVI SIGHDOYA, 14, SWATI TYAGI, 14, SUSHMA RANI, 16
Their story is an inspiration for young Indians. It is lesson for parents who still live in the age of darkness. It is a salute to woman power.
Neelam, Sarita, Sunita, Swati and Sushma were no different from other girls their age -- they went to school, did their homework, gossiped, helped their mothers at home, helped out in the fields and enjoyed singing and dancing during marriages.
Amid the fun and laughter, these young girls from Harisinghpura village in Haryana came across a hard social reality: child marriage. Despite belonging to a patriarchal and backward society where child marriage was the norm, they revolted and saved two minor girls from being married to the men double their age.
Sarita Tyagi tells their story. "A family had come to our village from the neighbouring village and were staying in a relative's house. We were told that two girls were getting married in that house. We went to meet the brides, who were very young. We saw the grooms on the day of the marriage; they looked much older than the girls.
"We enquired about their age -- one of them was 26; the other was 30 years old. We then asked the age of the brides. We were told us that one was six and the other was 12 years old. They were forced to agree to the marriage because their father had borrowed money from these people. Their father said he had no choice because he was poor and could not pay his debt. We immediately met our school teacher who asked us to complain to the sarpanch [village head]. Though we met both the sarpanch and the former sarpanch, no one was willing to help.
"On the day of the wedding, April 18, we told the pandit [priest] about the situation. He rudely told us not to interfere. Everybody started shouting at us. They told us we were like makkis [flies] and could not do anything. But we were determined to stop the wedding. We took the girls home. The marriage was cancelled that day. They came and threatened us. The marriage was fixed for the next day. We informed the police and a newspaper reporter who said he would write about it. The police arrested those people and proposed our names for the award. The girls are now studying free of cost in our school. They are very happy."
(Left to right) Sarita Tyagi, Swati Tyagi, Sushma Rani, Sunita Devi Sighdoya and Neelam Kumari (in front) were jointly honoured with the National Bravery Award.