Click to play videoPurulia: Fourteen-year-old Bina Kalindi, a resident of West Bengal's Purulia district is fighting the illegal but still prevalent practice of Child Marriages.
In the land of the powerful Goddess, her daughters are helpless. Even before they can realize, child marriage or 'ballo vivaho' abruptly ends their childhood and they are forced to walk into a life of unimaginable horrors.
Sixteen-year-old Saraswati was married off at the age of 12 years. By the time she turned 14, she had suffered two miscarriages and her first husband had deserted her. She was remarried by her parents and her third child was born.
"Today I'm suffering because I was married early. There's only sadness, my kid is always sick," she said.
Watching her sister suffer, Bina Kalindi decided that she didn't want to end up like her. So Bina became the first girl in her village to speak out against child marriage.
"When girls are married off so young, they become mother at an early age. Many a times both of them die. So I decided that neither I will get married nor will I allow any child marriage in my village," said Bina.
Bina was already playing many roles - she was a child labourer, she had to do the daily chores at home as her mother was sick and she also attended school. Just 12-years-old then, she was also the oldest unmarried girl in the village. So her father forced her to appear before prospective grooms not once, not twice but four times. And each time Bina had the same answer.
"Every time I refused and said no to them. I told them I don't want to get married so early but study and stand on my own feet," Bina said.
She added, "My father asked me to leave the home if I don't agree. I was scared initially but I gathered the courage because I had to save my life."
Bina then took the fight against child marriage outside her home.
In the last two years Bina and her friends have stopped three child marriages. Girls like Dipali owe their new found freedom to Bina.
Today Bina and her friends go from village to village, speaking out at public gatherings. But Bina has had to face the ire of the villagers for challenging archaic traditions.
"Villagers threaten me, show their anger, but I know I'm doing good work. When these girls grow up and have a career then their parents will realise that Bina was right," she said.
Like the Goddess Kali, Bina and her friends have triumphed over the evil. They may have won the battle but the war is still on.
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