Rajni Ahirwar lived in Aurangpur village of Madhya Pradesh with her parents and two sisters. At the age of 14 in class nine, she was admitted to a hostel for her studies in Udaipur Higher Secondary School. Everything was going as per plans and nothing could have made Rajni happier than to pursue her studies and ambition of becoming an educationist. But disaster struck two years later when Rajni was just 16 years of age. Her parents had decided to marry off Rajni along with her 19 years old school dropout sister Anita. More than anything else, the decision was based on simple financial calculation that marrying off two daughters at the same time would be economical for the family. Anita had already consented to the marriage and Rajni was summoned back from her hostel. Rajni had resigned to her fate when her younger sister Anju took matters in her hand. A student of class nine at that time, Anju approached the Bal Mitra Gram (BMG) staff of her village Aurangpur and apprised them about the marriage of Rajni, who was still a minor. An urgent meeting was called by the BMG team with the child leaders, anganwadi workers, school teachers and women’s group to address the issue and have a dialogue with Rajni’s parents. BMG team along with anganwadi worker informed the parents about the Child Marriage Act and explained about the legal punishments for solemnizing a child marriage. Rajni too tried to convince her parents by showing her excellent school results. After a lot of deliberations, Rajni’s parents understood that education can change the future of their daughter and decided to let Rajni continue her education to fulfil her dream of becoming an educationist.

Consequently, Rajni continued her schooling to clear her class 11 and 12 exams with good grades and is currently pursuing a graduate degree from Ganj Basoda. In her spare time Rajni teaches her younger sister and her friends at home.