Slum Soccer / Wikimedia Commons
Football is emerging as a tool to empower girls and prevent forced marriages, which are still very common in India.
On a hot summer night, Nisha Vaishnav, then 14, was training soccer with her sister Munna, 18, when the two realized that five adults were photographing them.
Nisha soon discovered the reason for her interest: they were all from the same family and included a couple looking for wife for son.
Nisha’s mother, who was also there, was in favor of the possibility of marriage.
The group headed to the Vaishnav family home, in the village of Padampura, in the state of Rajasthan, in northwest India.
“My mother asked me to touch their feet as a sign of respect,” says Nisha. “I refused.”
“Village women pointed at us”
Although the law prohibits the marriage of girls under 18 and boys under 21 in India, the child marriage is still common in practice.
Around 25% of women living in India were married before the legal age, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef).
Still, the proportion of child marriages fell significantly in the last 30 years.
In 1992-93, about 66% of women in India were married before turning 18, according to the National Family Health Survey, carried out by the government.
In Rajasthan, where Nisha lives, child marriage rates exceed the national averageand girls rarely feel able to refuse proposals or defy their parents’ wishes.
However, Nisha developed the confidence to assert herself after discovering football — a sport she credits with changing her life.
She was introduced to the game in 2022 by Munna, who had discovered the sport a year earlier through Football for Freedom (Futebol pela Liberdade, in free translation), part of a non-profit organization operating throughout the state, aimed at promoting improvements in the lives of girls through sport.
Munna was the main supporter of the project in her village, leading the fight for authorization to travel to tournaments and wearing shorts on the field instead of long tunics and baggy pants — a significant step in a community where married women cover their faces in the presence of men in public.
“For the first two or three days, women in the village would point at us and say, ‘Look at those girls showing their legs,’” says Munna.
“We ignored it, we decided that we didn’t care and we continue to wear shorts.”
Nisha quickly excelled in the sport and joined the Rajasthan state team for the National Football Championship in 2024.
Also cut his hair shortin a gesture of defiance in a village where girls are expected to have long hair.
When the marriage proposal came from the family watching her at football training, Nisha resisted and made it clear that she was too young to get married and that she wanted to continue pursuing her football dreams.
About a month later, that family withdrew the proposal.
In 2025, Nisha and Munna also rejected a joint marriage proposal made by another family, which involved the two of them and their younger brother.
The sisters are firmly opposed to child marriage and want to focus on careers in sport.
When their father asked Nisha if she had a boyfriend waiting for her at soccer practice, she says she replied, “There’s no boyfriend. I’m going to play soccer — this is my love.”
Finding a job through football
Girls who marry in childhood face greater risk of sexual coercionearly pregnancy, malnutrition and health problems, according to several studies.
They also tend to leave school early, which reduces their chances of improving their living conditions.
Padma Joshi, from Football for Freedom, an initiative linked to the women’s rights organization Mahila Jan Adhikar Samiti, says she wants to make families aware of these risks. Football for Freedom trained around 800 girls in 13 villages in Rajasthan since its inception in 2016.
“When we started talking to parents, we never said we were introducing football to prevent child marriage“, afirma Joshi.
But “when we work with girls and they learn about their rights and the harmful effects of child marriage”, they are able to take a stand, she adds.
Joshi also points out to parents that excelling at football can, in the future, help girls get a jobas Indian states reserve part of public sector positions for athletes.
Poverty, in addition to tradition, is among the reasons why families in India continue to marry off their daughters, often seen as a financial burden.
Sometimes the marriages are with young men of similar age; in other cases, with adult men.
In general, girls start living with their husbands soon after marriage, no longer being the financial responsibility of their own families.
Nisha and Munna have an older sister who got married in 2020 at the age of 16, and their mother Laali was also engaged as a child.
Defending her decisions, Laali says, “I worry about my daughters. Villagers say that if girls leave the house, they are exposed to bad influences and can run away with boysso we have to get them married early.”
When asked if she knew that marrying her eldest daughter at 16 was illegal, she nods and explains that no one gets caught: “We do everything in silencewe don’t print wedding invitations, we don’t decorate the house or set up a tent.”
The law, however, is clear — facilitating child marriage is a crime.
Adults who perform the ceremonies, as well as parents or guardians who authorize child marriage or neglect its interruption, can face up to two years in prison and fine of 100 thousand rupees.
However, Anjali Sharma, chairwoman of the child welfare committee of the city of Ajmer in Rajasthan, says that in practice it is difficult to obtain convictions because witnesses are rarely willing to provide evidence to authorities.
“If families find out that we know [sobre um casamento infantil]they change the date sooner or later than we expected,” says Sharma, explaining that entire villages collaborate to hide marriages.
If the bride or groom reports it to the police, an underage marriage can be annulled, but it is difficult for them to do so. complaint against their own parentsknowing that this could result in a fine or imprisonment.
If child marriage is not reported, it can later be registered when the man and woman reach the legal age, and no one will be prosecuted.
The number of child marriage cases reported across India has gradually increased as awareness and enforcement improve.
Were registered 1050 cases in 2021, compared to 395 in 2017, according to the Ministry of Women and Child Development.
Still, this total represents a tiny fraction of the approximately 1.5 million girls under 18 who get married every year in India, according to Unicef.
