Twenty-one-year-old Shimla is the youngest at home. She has two older brothers and three sisters. She, too, lives in the village of Lakkhanwala that is in the Sahaspur block of Dehradun. Sadly, for her, life at home is fraught with tension. She has to bear up with a drunken father. Though he works in the government-owned electricity department, he spends his all money on alcohol. Her elder brother recently died in a car accident and his family depends on them. The younger brother and his wife resent contributing to the family’s finances and always pick up quarrels.

Shimla says that initially she was a mute witness to their hostility and abusive behaviour to her eldest sister in law; but not any longer. As a Change Maker, she says she has understood the need to speak up against gender discrimination and violence and does. Her elder brother resents her speaking up but she says she has to in the interest of her family. She also organises meetings in her villages to talk to people about domestic violence and mobilises women and men of her age to become Change Makers.