“You are entering a dowry-free area,” a board greets you as you enter this town. Not a single dowry related case has been reported in Nilambur in many years. The town has shown the world how to contain social evils effectively. For the first dowry-free and perhaps fully matriculate municipality of the country, social development is its engine of growth. The area has many tales of bravery when it comes to fighting social evils. The mother-daughter duo Grannies in their 30s are a common sight in Malappuram, a Muslim-dominated district in north Kerala.

The age difference between Sajidha and her mother Afsat, natives of Nilambur, is just 13 years and six months. Both were victims of child marriage and dowry. They don’t let anyone suffer in silence now. When Sajidha heard that a 16-year-old girl was being discreetly married off in the neighbourhood, she rushed to the ‘pandal’ with fellow volunteers and blocked the marriage. They took an undertaking from the girl’s parents that the marriage would be solemnised after two years, only after the girl was 18. “At least our next generation should be free from such crippling social evils,” Sajidha said. Such acts of standing up to social evils were not common in this sleepy Nilgiri municipality.

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