HARNESSING SOCIAL MEDIA TO CHANGE THE FUTURE FOR GIRLS
“To not be able to express our thoughts freely and not be able to interact with your friends freely, that feels very bad.”
At the age of just 18 years, Susma has risen beyond the constraints of caste and gender to become a champion for girls’ rights, both in person and online. Living in the rural hills of Udayapur district, where regressive gender norms like girls marrying instead of going to school and girls staying home to look after their parents is the standard, Susma is defiant and she’s leading a wave of change from an unlikely place: her phone.
Despite being born into the ‘Dalit’ (untouchable) caste of Nepal, considered to be the lowest level caste – and the most marginalized – she has risen as a social media influencer, she is vocal about the harms that girls face and has built a healthy following of young people who strive for education and a community where they can express themselves.
During the day when she is not studying, Susma leads self defence classes at the local secondary school. She then visits the high school and teaches teens (boys included) how to make sanitary pads, so that girls don’t have to miss school when they get their period. In traditional Nepalese culture, menstruation is incredibly taboo, but that’s not stopping Susma. She is doing whatever she can to break down barriers that prevent girls from having the same rights as boys.
Her community wasn’t always receptive to her leading change like this. Susma remembers what it was like to be a girl from the lowest caste. Even though she was attending school, she was often sent home on holy days because she was considered too “dirty” to interact with the worship ceremonies. The impact that moments like this must have on a young teenage girl who is trying to find her identity and place in the world could have been detrimental, but Susma has used her experience to tackle some deep-seated perceptions about girls.
“Society has created a role for daughters, that they should not go out in the society, to speak up and belonging to a Dalit family, many girls that are my age have already married.”
Backing her up is her supportive family and training from World Vision that enabled her to find her voice. Susma says she always dreamt of a life beyond getting married and tending to the home. She didn’t want to give up her education to appease societal expectations of her, but didn’t know what she could do about it. Thankfully her family were supportive, so when the opportunity from World Vision came to participate in a training for girls, she was able to jump at it and find a way to speak out.
She now shares the learnings online and bakes them into trainings so that more girls like her can have the confidence to stay in school and break free from a culture of silence and fear. After being trained with World Vision, Susma was so successful that she’s been invited by other organizations to lead their training and facilitation. “I wish to create a thousand adolescent girls like me,” says Susma with confidence.
Her influence doesn’t stop at social media either. Recently Susma has taken her quest to support girls to government, where is leading a policy initiative to prevent child marriage. She submitted an appeal to the Local Government urging the government to take actions to end child marriage. Susma is now funding herself through teaching college. She is determined to become a teacher and help shape the next generation of girls.
