How an Indian farmer uses sports to save girls from early marriage

When Pandurang Terase, a sugarcane and rice farmer from India’s Maharashtra state, failed to turn his passion for kabaddi into a career, he ventured on a mission to train rural girls in sports for free. He never envisioned his work would someday save thousands from early and child marriage. 

Every minute, 23 girls are married globally before they turn 18, according to the United Nations Population Fund. That’s over 12 million young women every year. So widespread is the problem that nearly 650 million women alive today became brides before turning 18 years old. India is home to 223 million child brides, the world’s highest. India accounts for one in three of the world’s child brides, UNICEF data shows.

“I wanted to help girls by making sports accessible to them,” says the now 66-year-old sports coach who doubles up as a farmer on his family plot. In his remote Pethewadi village in western India, with fewer than 150 people, sports was never considered a career, nor was any girl encouraged to pursue it.