Dr. Shubhra Dwivedy
For most, February 26th, 2009, was a normal day at SEEDS’ (Socio Economic and Education Development Society) 60 day girls residential learning camp. Of 40 adolescent participants, one sat grave and tense in the classroom. Budhni Sardar, came to SEEDS as a timid fifteen year old, from the almost inaccessible Reyarda Village in Jharkhand, India. Raised in a poor tribal family where all the energy and resources were geared just towards survival, Budhini had the opportunity to be a participant of SEEDS’ learning camp. Though, on this day, the coordinator, Dhruvjyoti, was informed that Budhni’s father had arrived at the camp to take her back home. The reason? Budhni’s prospective groom’s family was coming to arrange a marriage with their son. Budhni faced a dilemma; having attended several camp sessions that focused on the minimum age of marriage, she and her fellow participants were more than convinced that they would not get married before turning eighteen years old. What’s more, they planned to disseminate this information in their respective villages. How then, could Budhni, three years below the legal age of marriage, walk away from her pledge to advocate and leave with her father?
Luckily, the head of SEEDS was at the camp and took the opportunity to give Budhni’s father a piece of her mind. Within 15 minutes he left for home without Budhni. The girls rejoiced and Budhni heaved a heavy sigh of relief. It was providence that her father had the potential to be convinced.
Child marriage is a significant contributor to the poor quality of life for women in the rural villages of India. Once married, these young girls are subjected to the vicious cycle of tribal women’s life; overburdened with work, early motherhood, ill health, and child mortality, they do all of the work inside and outside the house save ploughing the fields, while the men are notoriously lazy. Nearly 38% of the marriages in India can be categorized as child marriages, which range from ages fifteen to nineteen. Reaching approximately 71%, the State of Bihar is at the top of this list.
These are the social dilemmas the Leadership Fellow Dr. Shubhra Dwivedy encounters in her work with the youth of East Singbhum in Jharkhand, India. Shubhra was born and raised in the Steel City of Jamshedpur, a home she fondly describes as an island of prosperity amidst a huge hinterland of poverty. She recalls her own days of childhood, when her father would take the family on Sunday picnics to the neighboring areas and intermingle with the local tribes. Here, Shubhra came to know and appreciate other cultures, and developed a closeness with the locals with whom she now works. After earning a PhD in Regional Development from the School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Shubhra returned home to apply her academic excellence into meaningful action for the aborigines.
Shubhra identified a need for broader education in the tribal communities that stemmed from a lack of access to traditional education and institutions. While there are considerable government and non-government interventions in the field of reproductive and child health, there is not much change or attention to the crucial issue of child marriage at the ground level. To address this gap, Shubhra along with eight colleagues started the SEEDS organization in 1995. They aimed to generate awareness through community mobilization, knowing that with the extra years of childhood, the girls would gain maturity, basic education, life skills, and not least of all the opportunity and freedom to play with their friends and enjoy a carefree life.
In 2004, when SEEDS got the opportunity to be a network partner for a three-year project for Adolescent Reproductive and Sexual Health, Shubhra took the opportunity to make necessary programmatic changes in order to sustain the momentum she built in 32 villages. Even though SEEDS had a strong impact among the adolescents as far as communicating the ‘do’s and don’ts’ where reproductive and sexual health was concerned, Shubhra noticed that when asked the minimum age of marriage, many adolescents regurgitated the correct answer but their applied knowledge was lacking.
In 2006 Shubhra launched the first of the Youth Resource Centers that today serve as a hub to stimulate creative and positive activity, provide a safe and positive space for tribal adolescents to read and play, and dissuade disruptive behavior and substance abuse. The results are loud and clear:
In 2009 and 2010
- 1,512 adolescents delayed marriage
- 90% belonged to the tribes
- 75% were girls
- 900 underserved adolescent girls and boys have been educated
- 10 new Resource Centers were established
In 2010
- Zero under age marriage occurred in the 56 villages and hamlets under the SEEDS program
Under Shubhra’s leadership, the education, health and livelihood of India’s tribal adolescents underwent a transformation and has instilled leaders who have developed the agency to advocate for their own health interests and guide future leaders. The girls have put their foot down and the poverty-struck parents, who at one point wanted to shake the burden of their children at their earliest convenience, are now convinced that healthy, educated girls are an asset to the family and the nation. Their message “we shall never marry before turning eighteen years” is loud and clear.
“Our work is a drop in the ocean but nevertheless it has brought transformation in many a life, and that is what is important for me,”
shares Shubhra.
At sixteen, Budhni is still happily unmarried and attending SEEDS trainings to enhance her life and livelihood skills as well as small business plans and advocacy work.