With a long ponytail, red bindi and sparkling eyes, Mangala is one of the youngest movement leaders of IMAGE. She was married when she was just 5 years old and it has been 10 years since.

Soon after Mangala was registered under the IMAGE project as an early married girl, she started attending different pieces of training conducted by the project. It didn’t take Mangala much time to emerge as a movement leader for her district. Through the training, Mangala learned extensively about child rights. She recognised that child marriage and child labour is illegal. This gave Mangala further motivation to stop these exploitations from happening against children by raising her voice.

Being a girl who not just speaks but displays in actions what she learnt, Mangala noted all the things in her surroundings which were forcing children like her into child marriage and child labour.

She took this observation to the Children’s Gram Sabha (Child Parliament) and boldly asked the village authorities to ensure children are not exploited in her society. Mentioning the high school dropout numbers in her village, Mangala confidently explained the challenges faced by her and other children in her village. On the lack of proper educational facilities, Mangala suggested the authorities construct the Science Lab at her school along with clean and hygienic toilets for girls.

The local government praised her confidence in sharing her concerns and demands during the children’s Grama Sabha session and have started with the construction of the science lab at her school premises along with the construction of toilets for girls.

Mangala says, “Education is very important to every child and especially to girls as it enables them to live their life with dignity and not become victims of child exploitation. Child Marriage and Child Labour are obstructions to development of a child and we have to collectively raise our voice against these practices”.