Twenty six-year-old Swarna Mishra of Sundargarh, Orissa, says she has had to fight for every inch of her space. “Educating girls is considered a useless and worthless enterprise in our community. I had to fight to allow a family to send their girl to college. After I spoke to the girl’s father, he gave her permission to attend college once a month. When I said that was as good as keeping her at home, he agreed to allow her to attend three days a week and later now allows her everyday attendance. Also, inter-caste marriages are frowned upon by the community members and in many cases when the girl chooses to marry out of her caste she is expelled from the family. All ties are broken off with her and some families even go to the extent of organising a death ceremony for her. I am keen to do something to halt these inhuman practices. I wish to also say that trafficking of girls and women is growing at an alarming rate in our region. We need to address it and reverse this trend.”