We believe that child marriage is an extreme violation of children’s rights – it brings down the darkness in the life of a girl and destroys childhood.We are partnering with panchayat-level child protection committees, and block and district-level child protection units of the government to implement the Child Marriage Act (2006). We work to change the social norms and empower girls and boys to report cases and take action to prevent forced marriages of their peers. Our adolescents and youth groups are engaged in the identification of cases and case management, and bringing the cases to the notice of government officials, community leaders and elected representatives. Likewise, family members and community elders who traditionally enforce child protection in the villages, are educated – through meetings – information campaigns, puppet shows, street plays – and community announcements – about how child marriage impacts a child’s health and future. With new knowledge, attitude and behaviour about child protection – they can challenge, rather than embrace, traditional expectations of children. Through our child sponsorship programmes, we help address some of the underlying causes of child marriage by making sure children can go to school and parents have enough resources to care for their children. Our campaign, “Child Marriage Free Village,” has become a community campaign in four southern Odisha districts. The approach is to address child marriage through the entire lifecycle of a child, especially by addressing persisting negative social norms which are key drivers for the high prevalence of child marriage in south Odisha. Our program works in partnership with governments, civil society organizations and young people themselves and adopts methods that have proven to work at scale.

Our vision is “No child should be working; every child should be in school” and we aim to eliminate all forms of child labour. We work with adolescents and youths, community institutions, and government agencies to implement the policy framework to end child labour. We support communities in changing their cultural acceptance of child labour while ensuring alternative income to families, access to preschools, quality education and protection services. We support the government in rescuing child labourers, rehabilitating them in our shelter home, providing counselling support and helping them to get back to their homes and continue their studies. We organise community events, sports, arts and theatre to educate communities about the importance of child rights and help communities access information services — all to help children, educate children and ensure they get back to school to access education.Our campaign, “Child Labour Free Villages” aims to secure the rights of all children within villages and community groups in cooperation with existing child protection community structures and government departments. We are providing quality education including secondary education, educational resources, career guidance, and vocational education enabling children to complete their education. This enables them to be equipped with relevant livelihood skills that can lead them to meaningful work opportunities in the future. At a household and community level, we have moved from creating awareness to facilitating the adoption of specific strategies to eliminate child labour. These include enabling access to social protection, financial assistance to families and improved access to livelihood opportunities to translate this into action on the ground.