Bettiah: Nisha Kumari, a Class X student of Saraswati Shishu Mandir, was at the human chain against dowry and child marriage on Sunday although she is preparing for her board examinations.

Nisha, who lost her parents to an accident 10 years ago, was one of the 26 girls from the Bisheshwarnath Hindu Anathalay (orphanage) who participated in the human chain here at the West Champaran district headquarters town around 200km north-west of Patna.

"It felt nice to be part of the human chain. Let this be a hundred per cent successful," Nisha said.

However, little bit of coaxing revealed some fears.

"Hope it does not happen that people continue taking dowry clandestinely, like we keep hearing about the liquor ban," said Saroj Kumari, another orphan. "At least now nobody runs amok in a drunken stupor in Bihar," countered her friend Mamata Kumari.

Despite the fears, the girls of the orphanage had a common refrain: "Thank you, chief minister Nitish Kumar."

It was a refrain that many echoed here as the town buzzed with activity and thousands of school students thronged the roads.

Afaque Haider, social worker and director of National Public High School Bettiah, praised Nitish to the skies.

"He is the modern day Raja Rammohan Roy who is relentlessly fighting social evils," Haider said. "Such moves are simply unprecedented and unheard of by a political personality in India."