While working with adolescent girls in the slums of Madanpur Khadar, I realised an urgent need to communicate to various communities the importance of a girl completing her education before her marriage, for the good of the family and the community at large.

I started by showing films, where women were achievers, to the girls, talked about their dreams and the possibility of achieving these. We decided to see if we could imagine getting out of present situations by imagining a short story about a girl who managed to get past all obstacles to get what she wanted. 10 stories, written straight from the heart were in my hands. There were stories about girls running away from home to get their men, of girls rescuing their parents from debt traps, to a girl with a disability who managed to get a job for herself. I took the essence of these stories, combined them to form a short fiction film script about a 17 year old girl who manages to get an education, and then a job all by herself.

The presence of a film crew working on adolescent girl education and empowerment also helped mobilise local people towards the cause. The film is currently being used by the United Nations Population Fund, India, for their field activities with adolescents across the country.

My biggest learning from this film project is that effective communication with one’s target audience in terms of development communication necessitates using their everyday language.