Childhood ends where child marriage begins. The phenomenon — which negatively influences kids’ rights to education, health, and protection — affects both boys and girls, but it is more prevalent among girls. Alongside countries such as Niger, Guinea, South Sudan, Chad, and Burkina Faso, India is one of the few states on the globe where this practice continues to be socially accepted. Progress has been made but, nevertheless, a 2011 report showed that child marriage is on the rise.
India has struggled with this problem for a long time and with the pandemic in the scene, things have become even worse. COVID-19-related conditions such as schools being closed, financial problems, and deaths in the family reflect in the number of child marriages, which have steadily risen. In the hope to put an end to this harmful practice, the #JustAChild initiative has been born, urging people who suspect that early marriage is about to happen to report it by calling a toll-free number.
Behind the campaign stands not-for-profit women’s organization and resource center with a mission to empower women and girls, Akshara Centre, and 82.5 Communications agency in association with the Ministry of Women and Child Development and UNICEF. Together, they will use posters, social media and digital creatives, video assets, and more to raise awareness that girls under the age of 18 should be empowered to continue their education so they can take better decisions in life and not be married off.
According to Sumanto Chattopadhyay, Chairman and CCO, 82.5 Communications India, as the society’s focus is on the pandemic and how to deal with it, the problem of early marriage has not received the urgent attention it needs. “It is our hope that this campaign will help raise awareness about it and stop these girls’ childhoods from coming to an untimely end,” Chattopadhyay explains.
Nandita Shah, Co-Director of Akshara Centre and active member in the Women’s Movement says: “The COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown has once again raised anew some of the issues facing women and girls. Last year, we were shocked to learn about an increase in domestic violence in the midst of the lockdown for which multiple awareness campaigns helped. There is another concern and that is the increasing number of child marriages during the pandemic. We hope that our public awareness campaign in collaboration with MWCD and UNICEF will urge citizens to work towards ending child marriage and addressing the issue.”
The campaign includes a series of visuals with text that’s suitable for adult brides rather than children. Messages such as “They said I was the most beautiful bride they had ever seen” or “I am the first to get married among all my friends” are normal for a grown person. But they sound totally wrong in the context of an underage bride.
Mayur Varma, ECD and Creative Head – Mumbai & Kolkata, 82.5 Communications, said: “What would have been a normal statement from an adult bride becomes totally inappropriate when uttered by a child bride. We hope our campaign based on this approach hits home and moves people to take action against child marriages.”
The initiative urges Indian citizens to signal all suspect child marriages by calling 1098 — the single call to action in the #JustAChild campaign. Also, to generate greater reach and efficiency, the campaign will be multilingual.
