The West Bengal Commission for Protection of Child Rights has released a music video depicting young girls standing up against marriage, aspiring to be independent women.
The video breaks gender stereotypes and shows girls playing football, wrestling, practising archery and conducting experiments in laboratory.
During the past two years of the Covid pandemic, many girls have dropped out of school and several have been married off.
“Child marriages have gone up in the last two years. The fact became more evident after the schools reopened, the number of girl students went down. Visits to homes revealed that many of them have been married off. We have to bring girls back to the classroom,” said Ananya Chatterjee Chakraborti, the chairperson, West Bengal Commission for Protection of Child Rights.
Korbo Na Biye is a 5 minute 20 seconds music video that was launched on June 9. Till Monday evening it had almost 1.7k views on YouTube.
The commission is hoping that the video would reach remote pockets of the state and spread awareness against child marriage.
During the last two years of pandemic, economic hardship forced many parents to get their daughters married off thinking that there would be less mouths to feed.
At times, girls agree to get married with hopes that their life might improve in the new family, said NGO workers.
The music video, where the main vocalist is Lopamudra Mitra, shows strong and powerful images of girls.
The commission did not want to portray girls as weak or victims of circumstances.
“Lekhapora rojgar kore/ nijer pai dariye/bachbo ei prithibi te/ matha uchu kore nahoy/amar ballokal, bhobishyat gorar shomay/ ami korbo na biye go maa.. (I will study and earn/ will establish myself / I will live on this planet with head held high/ my childhood is time to build my future/ I will not get married, mother).
“It (the music video) could be spread through schools. Played during online classes and physically when schools reopen,” said Sudeshna Roy, special consultant of the commission.
“When we thought about the whole thing we deliberately wanted positive images in the video. It has to spread all over, especially in rural areas,” said Roy.
