'We also made my school authorities make a toilet for the girl students. Until now girls had to go to the forest to relieve themselves,' she added.

For 12-year-old Indra Gujar of Rajasthan, child marriage is one issue that plagues her society the most.

'A few weeks back I came to know that my neighbour was getting their 13-year-old daughter married. I took up the issue in the Bal Panchayat and since I am the vice-president, we went to the family and told them it is illegal to get girls married before they are 18.

'We threatened to complain to the police if they did not listen to us. Thankfully they understood our point and enrolled the girl in school instead,' Gujar, who studies in class 7, said with pride.

While Sultana and Gujar have managed to get out of the vicious cycle and are actually helping others like them do the same, some are happy at reaching 'a compromise' with the system like the kids of Jharkhand.

A Maoist belt where development is very little, if at all, working in mica mines is the primary means of livelihood in every home.

For 15-year-old Monica Kumari the story was no different.

'Children in my village work in the mica mines everyday for seven to eight hours. They sieve the soil and pick the shiny material which is called mica and collect it. After that we sell it in the market. But we don't get a good price,' Kumari said.

While the middlemen buy the mica from the families at the rate of just Rs.6 per kilo, they sell it outside for as much as Rs.100-150 per kilo.

'But that is our livelihood. So when the BBA activists said that they will help us go to school our parents understood but were worried about less money coming into our homes. So we decided to go to school on weekdays and pick mica on weekends,' she said.

(Azera Rahman can be contacted at azera.p@ians.in)