When a young girl is married off, there’s no denying it; her childhood ends and injustice begins. Not only is deprived of further opportunities for education, she is robbed of her innocence and the right to achieve her full potential.

Kashmiri muslim school girls dressed in traditional outfits

I met two innocent girls singing at a crossroads during my trip to the Kashmir valley. There was an exuberance infused in their song and they were dancing without any care for tomorrow. It was probably a folk song. I don’t remember the girls’ names now. But I still recall their fondness for Maggi. One of them told me that whenever they got money from the tourists, they immediately headed to spend it at a local food stall. This little encounter with the two happy and talented souls stayed with me as a serendipitous memory for some time.

© Muzamil Bhat

Chasing her dream of becoming a hockey player, Inayat Farooq from central Kashmir’s Budgam district has had to battle all the odds in Indian society since deciding to play at this beloved sport.

© Audrey Pe

Audrey Pe was 13 years old when she found herself smitten by series of letters such as HTML, CSS and other coding terms she learned about in class.  

Siti Aishah © SPOT

Siti Aishah Hassan Hasri was first sexually assaulted at age eight. Then she was molested four times between the ages of 14 and 26. When she told her parents the first time it happened, they didn’t know how to handle the issue because the perpetrator was a close family friend.

In Bangladesh around 4.5 million children are working under hazardous conditions. Some 1.7 million of them live and work in the capital, Dhaka. DW correspondent Mustafiz Mamun has captured their every day lives on film.

A stencil of a missing girl on a wall next to street art depicting a young boy

Leena Kejriwal uses art and gaming to share stories of human trafficking and encourage players to take action in the real world. Thousands of girls are forced into the sex trade in India each year.