With support from Malala Fund’s Education Champion Network, Yuman Hussain and her organisation Azad India Foundation hold supplemental classes for marginalised girls. (Courtesy of Saumya Khandelwal / Malala Fund)

20-year-old Sabiha Khatoon is fighting to prevent child marriage and teen pregnancy in her village in Bihar.

When Sabiha Khatoon’s family told her that she had to get married at age 14, she was heartbroken. But as the oldest of four daughters, Sabiha knew her parents couldn’t afford to keep her at home so she agreed with one condition: that her future husband and in-laws could not stop her from going to school.

In Sabiha’s home state of Bihar, child marriage is common. In 2017, 27% of girls in India were married by age 18, forcing many of them out of school. Sabiha wanted to make sure that her marriage didn’t limit her opportunity to make a better life for herself. After convincing her husband and in-laws, she was back in class — 15 days after her wedding.

Sabiha campaigns against child marriage and teen pregnancy in her village. (Courtesy of Azad India Foundation)

But Sabiha’s struggles weren’t over yet. “When I went to school after my marriage, community people ridiculed me and my family,” she remembers. Her husband could not afford to pay for her books on his painter’s salary, so she borrowed them from her friends. At age 16, she gave birth to her daughter but still Sabiha kept going to school. “I continued to study because I wanted a better life for me and my daughter,” she explains.

Now 20 years old, Sabiha is completing her bachelor’s degree from a local college and teaching Hindi, math, English and social studies at the Azad India Foundation’s Kasba Gangi learning centre. Some girls at the centre have never been to school before because their parents don’t understand the advantages. Others had to drop out to work in the fields or because their parents worried about their safety travelling long distances to school. With support from Malala Fund, staff at the centre teach out-of-school girls from Kishanganj district and help them enrol in the local government school.

Azad India Foundation also helps with Sabiha’s campaign against child marriage and teen pregnancy in her village. She holds community and parent meetings where she explains why everyone benefits when girls go to school. Thanks to Sabiha’s leadership in the classroom and in her village, many girls from her community are now enrolled in full-time education.

With her salary as a teacher, Sabiha is helping take care of her family. Her success inspired her younger sisters to continue their education. Sabiha hopes her efforts will pave the way for the next generation, especially her daughter: “I want to give [a] good education to my daughter. I will not let her face the difficulties which I have undergone.”