Indian girl beaten and starved by her own MOTHER for ...

Launched by Penguin Books in association with news website Better India, the initiative seeks to bring awareness to the all-too-common practice of forced underage marriage, in a country where one in five brides is under the age of 15.

The hashtag was inspired by an Indian girl called Rekha Kalindi, now 18, who refused an arranged marriage at the age of just 11 and was allegedly beaten and starved by her own mother for doing so.

Rekha, who has published her own memoir, Strength to Say No, says she worked from the age of four-years-old to help support her family. 

They lived in a remote Indian village where, according to children's right charity Humanium, 'when a girl is born, it is always bad news'.

Fortunately for her, the National Child Labour Project in collaboration with UNICEF funded her to get a school education, where she gained a certain level of independence.

When, in 2008 at the age of 11, Rekha was faced with the prospect of marriage, she shrunk back. Her 12-year-old sister was already married and had suffered four still-borns. 

At school, Rekha gave talks about her refusal to follow in her sister's path, which won her widespread media attention, but her views were not so popular at home.

'Rekha’s mother beat her violently prohibiting her from returning to school and depriving her of food,' states children's rights charity Humanium.

The cause particularly resonated with females, with one Indian woman writing, 'As Maya Angelou put it: 'I've been female for a long time now. I'd be stupid to not be on my own side,' and another sharing the fears for her own safety: 'I still can't walk alone after 10pm in India'.

Another woman wrote simply but powerfully: 'I have the #strengthtosayno because #it'smylife!'

Many statements made it clear that children should be allowed a childhood. 'Marriages are made in heaven, don't make it hell on earth for children,' said one, with another man referencing a popular Indian TV show to make his point: 'Because childhood is meant to play 'ghar-ghar' as a game & not as a lifestyle'.

On Tweeter posed the powerful question: 'When a man forces himself upon his wife, does the fact of marriage reduce the gravity of abuse?'

According to TrustLaw, a news service run by Thomson Reuters that polled global experts on the matter, India ranks among one of the worst places in the world to be a woman.

Gulshun Rehman,from Save the Children UK, told Trust Women: 'In India, women and girls continue to be sold as chattels, married off as young as 10, burnt alive as a result of dowry-related disputes, and exploited and abused as domestic slave labour.'

#StrengthtoSayNo has since attracted input from Tweeters about other social issues in India; among them homophobia, mental illness stigmas, and honour killings.

(dailymail.co.uk)