In Asha’s Community, Girls Were Married as Young as 10, Reports Gospel for Asia

You’re 10 years old, enjoying your happy-go-lucky days by running around with your friends and playing games. But in a few months, all that will end when you assume the mantle of being a wife to a man you only just met.

What’s the point in going to school and learning anything besides how to take care of a home and a family if your fate has already been decided?


In Asha’s community, they were married as young as 10.

“In their society, girls were not given consideration,” reported a Gospel for Asia-supported field correspondent. “They were believed to be a burden upon their parents. At the age of 10, they would get them married. Parents did not want them to study more, since they are going to be in someone else’s house after their marriage.”

Asha, too, had no regard for her education. Why would she when it was common knowledge her life would end up just like every other girl’s in her village.

“I never thought about studies, that I can become a better, educated woman,” Asha said. “I thought always that I won’t get good education, that I’ll be getting married, and I will go to my in-laws’ house … as usually people do in our village. So I didn’t have any hope or any future or any value of my life.”

This is Asha. She escaped the fate of entering a child marriage when she enrolled in a Gospel for Asia-supported Bridge of Hope center, which taught her and her family that a girl’s life is valuable.

But then something changed. When Asha was 8 years old, she was enrolled in a local Gospel for Asia-supported Bridge of Hope center where she learned that boys and girls are equal, that girls can become great leaders in their communities. Through the love, care and teaching of the Bridge of Hope staff, Asha realized her life as a woman does have value—and she began to dream of a world beyond household chores.

Then Asha’s father took notice of his daughter’s change. He saw how Asha was improving in her studies, and he no longer thought about marrying her off. Instead, he also began to dream for his daughter. As a police officer, he worked alongside women and wondered why his own daughter couldn’t become like them.


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