Sunita Harijan, 19-years-old belongs to the Madhesi middle class Dalit family Rupendehi district. She is the chairperson of the Girls Rights Forum (GRF) of Rupandehi district and member of provincial level Girls Network. Her mother Nirmala Harijan and father Bekaru Harijan are farmers by profession. Sunita is studying in grade 11 in Shree Balrampur Higher Secondary School in her community and is recognized as a hard-working and dedicated student in the school.  Discriminatory gender norms are highly prevailed in her community. As a consequences girls are facing the issues like early forced marriage, gender, deprived of education, sexual harassment, control over mobility and so on. Sunita was no exception to those harmful traditional norms and values. She had to leave school, and her parents forced her to get married when she was 14 years old. She bravely stood against her parents and refused the proposal.  It was very hard for her to convince them.  She had to go through painful experiences that she does not want to remember the past now.  During the conversation she said, “Our community does not respect women and girls and treat us as second-class citizens. On top of that, we being a Dalit community, have to face untouchability from so-called higher caste people. 

Dalit women and girls are in the three tires of discrimination; Caste Based Discrimination (CBD), Gender Based Discrimination (GBD) poverty, making them very difficult to live a dignified life.  Further, her community promotes the dowry system rather than girls’ education.  Sunita has got the opportunities for her capacity development from different types of training, interactions, and workshops conducted by GRF with the support of WOREC. With the confidence to fight against social harmful practices gained from the programs, she has started advocating for girls’ and women’s rights in her patriarchal society. Further, she is also mentoring the girl’s group and taking part in Intergenerational Feminist Dialogue with the objectives to develop alliance against girl’s issues and transferring the feminist knowledge to new generation. These activities have enhanced her skills for advocacy, analyzing the existing social structure and transformative leadership. Through GRF, now she is leading 1,500 girls and advocating for their rights. They are conducting many awareness-raising programs in their community, such as parenting education, interaction with community people about violence against women and girls, child marriage, and girls’ rights.   Furthermore, she has supported 20 girls to get citizenship and motivated 12 adolescent girls in her community to continue school. Many child marriages were stopped in her leadership. Nowadays, some parents in the community reflect Sunita as an example in front of their children to make them focus on education and social work. She is a role model in her community and district. She is awarded with the “International Environment Warrior Awards” from the Brainstorming on Nature and Global Warming Camp 2021. Sunita, a symbol of Girl’s Human Rights Defender commits for her further engagement and leadership to ensure the rights of women, girls and marginalized communities.   ***  I am Akshita Shukla, 21-year-old residing in Kapilvastu of Suddhodhan Rural Municipality.  My father’s name is Vashishta Shukla and my mother’s name is Sangita Shukla. My father is engaged in agriculture while my mother is involved in household work. I am currently studying in the third year of B.Ed. and have adjacently been leading various campaigns as the chairperson of the district-level Girls Rights Forum Kapilvastu.  In my community, there is a harmful concept that daughters shouldn’t be educated.  It is believed that the more a daughter studies, the more dowry, and gifts need to be provided in her marriage- either way giving dowry is mandatory so instead of investing in daughter’s education, the families prepare for dowry. These problems are prevalent and normalized. Many of the females can’t raise their voices against it because of the intended backlashes linked with honor.  I along with other adolescent girls got the opportunity to join a group around our community where we initially discussed our dreams and life skills. Gradually, we started discussing problems prevailing in society and their root cause among ourselves which further turned into having discussions and searching for solutions with related stakeholders and family members. Once we started having such discussions, we received support from parents as well as local stakeholders which boosted our self-confidence and our voices amplified.  But at the same time, it made us also realize about girls like us who didn’t have opportunities like us and were living in violence every day. That realization led to the formation of the District Level Girls Right Forum as an organization.  I was running various campaigns as vice president of the forum. In the initial phase of working inside a forum, I received a lot of pressure from my home to get married but I continued to discuss with my family about my work and my dream.  Currently I am working as a chairperson in GRF. We are now working as a voice for many adolescents by forming the Girls Rights Forum in 10 municipalities of Kapilvastu. At present, WOREC has been mentoring us regularly and supporting technically for the empowerment of girls. As a result, we have also made our five-year strategic plan and are working accordingly. We have been conducting various campaigns in coordination and partnership with WOREC, local government and other related organizations. Challenges aside, in coordination with adolescent groups formed by various organizations inside this district, we are making harmful social practices a common issue for all. Many people say that I walk out freely and have been spoiling other girls. But my family is very proud of me; they say, “my daughter is about to become a leader”. There are also many people who support and inspire me which has boosted my self-confidence throughout. My dream is to become a social engineer in my community to guide adolescents, increase their access to a national level and work relentlessly to eradicate harmful social practices.