This is unfortunately a realistic story and the life of millions of women and children is not far from the one of Devi and her daughters Sapna and Asha. Harmful social practices still prevail in some remote parts of India and children are the first ones who suffer:
• More than 5,000 children die every day before their fifth birthday
• 61 million children are malnourished
• More than 600 million people defecate in the open
• 80 million children will never finish primary school
• 8.1 million children are out-of-school
• Out of the 1.3 million schools in India, more than 500,000 do not have any separate toilets for girls.
• More than 28 million children are working
• 43 per cent of women 20-24 were married before 18
• More than 70 per cent of adolescents girls are anemic
• 16 per cent of adolescents girls have begun child bearing

However, as an Indian proverb says: “there are always one thousand suns behind the clouds”.

Frank Chimero

Dalai Lama

Jakob Nielsen