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beganto overflow. Agriculture also flourished and the area had record cultivation of cotton that year. During this time, Asha workers started creating local female groups in villages and towns. Our contacts were increasing. We got a piece of crucial information that nearly 37 marriages were going to take place in Shirur Taluka in that particular month. We made a list of that and gave it to the media. Some people started conspiring that the list was fake. But the High court saw the news and sent a letter to the District Court, from where it came to the Taluka Court. Every village representative was told to work to stop those marriages. Every family from that list was made to answer. Many of them tried calling it a piece of fake news. They started spreading that we were defaming the entire village in the media. Some local organisation even started peddling violent messages against us. Local papers were also catering to the local consensus. We weren't bothered about what the media said about us, we were glad that because of our efforts, the child marriages didn't happen. In the next 1.5 years, we stopped nearly 73 child marriages. Unfortunately, we couldn't stop 20 marriages. People had found a way to fool the government officials, they were demanding 'Adhaar' to be the proof for the age of their children because it was easy to manage their age that way. But we remained stuck with the school passing certificate to be made mandatory. Locals were little upset with everything that had been going on, but on the other side, they were slowly realising that our efforts were for their beneficiary only. Especially the girls who had to face such marriages started supporting us. We started our very own movement. Meanwhile, UNFPA approved our reports, we were allotted funds. We set up an office in Shirur-Kasara. Many people started working there, our work had become official. But it was possible only because of all the relations that we had made out of love, anger, greed, advice, and help with the local people. Like many other things, now when I think of it, I understand its realimportance!
