Educating the Mothers: Why the System Owes Them a Second Chance

In the heartlands of Western Maharashtra, where child marriage remains an entrenched social norm, two women, Deepali and Abhita, are reclaiming their right to education.

- KREEANNE RABADI

In the dusty lanes of rural Maharashtra, two women—Deepali Ravindra Sukale and Abhita Rupesh Dagade—are quietly rewriting their destinies. Once child brides forced to drop out of school, they are now mothers and students, juggling textbooks alongside toddler tantrums and domestic chores. Their stories are not just about individual triumphs but a searing commentary on the systemic failure that allows child marriage and the denial of education to persist.

WHEN CHILDHOOD ENDS TOO SOON

Both Deepali and Abhita hail from Solapur district, an area where the norms of early marriage, child labour, and gender discrimination still hold sway, especially within the NT-DNT (Nomadic and Denotified Tribes) communities. Married at 14, Deepali was pulled out of school and thrust into domesticity. In her community, girls are typically married off after Class 8, and boys pushed into manual labour like stone breaking. Education is seen not as a right but a luxury.