IMAGE Next

What is

IMAGE Next

Bringing early married girls together to end
child marriage

The Initiatives for Married Adolescent Girls’ Empowerment Next Project (IMAGE Next), is a movement to bring together victims of child marriage, train them on their rights and tools of advocacy so as to make them fight for their entitlements, speak up against injustice and work towards a child marriage free society.The following are the various activities undertaken under the IMAGE Next project :

Movement
Building

Organising girls into a movement, sensitising and capacity building, movement strengthening, mobilising support.

Married adolescent girls and older women who are child marriage victims are gathered together and encouraged to be a part of the movement, their capacities are built and the goals are laid out.

Leadership Development

Identifying and nurturing the early married girls and survivors from the movement with leadership skills.

Among the girls, leaders are identified and nurtured to help take the movement forward and give it a necessary direction. In 2020, 335 district and block level leaders were identified.

Norms and Behaviour Changes

Educate the men and boys towards addressing the innate gender-based discrimination

Community awareness campaigns are organised to make people aware on the ill effects of child marriage, child rights and child protection.

Engagement with the
Government

Providing a platform to interface with Government officials

Meetings are organised with the Government where the girls are given a platform to express their concerns, and ascertain their rights and entitlements. 

Where We Work

15,797 Early Married Girls and Survivors, in 15 districts of Karnataka, India

We work in 621 villages across 15 vulnerable districts of Karnataka where child marriage is prevalent. As per the NCPCR report of 2018, Karnataka accounts for 23% of India’s child marriages.

Story

“In the sensitisation workshops conducted by the movement, I learnt about child rights and child protection laws.

 In these workshops, I got to know that there are so many other early married girls like me going through tough issues. 

I was then asked to give a presentation on my learnings during the workshop. 

I was complimented on my communication skills and confidence. This is how I was elected as a Movement Leader

Now, I have a responsibility to build a child marriage free society.  I believe in the power of unity to fight against this issue. I will build a strong movement against child marriages with the support of girls like me.” 

 

2021

Key Achievements

girls organised into the movement
0
district and block level leaders identified
0
sensitisation events held
0
movement leaders trained
0
meetings held with the government
0
awareness campaigns organised
0

Our Results

Impact

Victims become change agents

Promotion of
gender equality

Girls develop
life skills

Shared Goal

Girls access
government and legal services

Issues of child marriage given attention

Watch how young Mahadevi stood
up against injustice

What our community says!