Brief Explanation

Child Survival India is a Non Government Organization that has been working for the betterment of vulnerable children since 1991. India is home to 29 million child brides and counting. They have taken it upon themselves to address the problem of child brides and make a sincere attempt at alleviating some children out of their unforeseen misery. Challenge: The agency was tasked to Generate widespread awareness and support to fight the evil of child brides with no marketing budget. Objectives: Our first objective was to compound awareness about child brides by driving media attention towards the problem (KPI: media impressions). Our second objective was to generate human & social capital to start rural education drives about social and healthcare problems like domestic violence, sexual abuse, illiteracy, poverty and infant mortality that get triggered when a child becomes a bride (KPI: volunteers, villages covered) The Idea: ELIMINATING CHILD MARRIAGE DOT BY DOT Every married Indian woman wears a red bindi / dot on the forehead representing honor, love & prosperity. We decided to contrast a red bindi with a white one as a symbol of peaceful protest against child marriages. White is associated with widows, so a white bindi / dot signified a lost childhood and a colorless future for an erstwhile colorful child. Over 4 months, we created a 6ft by 4ft art installation of a girl child with 39000 white bindis; because 39000 girls become child brides every day. Wherever it traveled, its interaction with the viewer made them aware of the magnitude of this social evil. It urged people to wear a white bindi and spread more awareness. Our Idea worked because it emerged from a cultural truth and became an easy enough symbol for people to identify with and show they care. Effectiveness: In just 45 days the campaign scored a whopping 22 million media impressions without spending even a single rupee! The white bindi successfully brought the country’s attention to an overlooked, yet pressing problem. (Source: digital, social media reporting tools) The white bindi movement managed to gather 1.5 million supporters, all-willing to do their bit to put an end to this social evil. We sold over 60,000 white bindis, resulting in education drives in 160 villages. Bollywood celebrities Liza Ray and Neena Gupta joined the movement. Tarun Tahiliani, India’s leading fashion designer opened his show at India Fashion Week with models sporting a white bindi. 10,468 pictures were shared on Facebook (Source: social media reporting tools). What was most heartening was the fact that Girls Not Brides, the organization that tabled the bill against child brides at the UN recognized Child Survival India as a partner NGO.