Girls’ Rights in India: How Much Agency Do Girls Actually Have Over Their Own Lives?
Three men are accused of raping a 17-year-old girl in Delhi’s Aastha Kunj Park. In the days that followed, hundreds of students came out to protest, asking for accountability and safer public spaces. Students spoke about dark roads, harassment, unsafe commutes, parental surveillance and the restrictions women already live with because of safety concerns.
Whenever violence against women takes place, the discussion often shifts to what women should do differently. Come home earlier. Don’t travel alone. Avoid less crowded places. Stay with friends. Be extra vigilant.
Why does violence against women so often result in more restrictions on women?
This question is not only about safety. It is also about agency and how much control girls actually have over their own lives.
Girls’ rights go beyond stopping child marriage or making sure they receive a good education. Girls should also be able to make decisions about where they study, whether they want to work, how they use their money, where they go, and who they have relationships with or marry.
We always talk about giving girls opportunities: let her study, let her work, let her travel and let her become independent.
But the word “let” itself conveys something.
Who is permitting, and who has the right to decide?
How does safety affect girls’ freedom?
Whenever men commit violence against women, the advice given to women is familiar. Don’t go out after dark, don’t travel alone, avoid certain places and make sure somebody always knows where you are.
But why should girls have to adjust to everything?
When parents stop allowing their daughters to travel alone, when women are told that a particular place is “not safe for girls”, or when different rules are created in the name of protecting them, their world becomes smaller because somebody else made it unsafe.
The recent protests by women students in Delhi were not asking to be kept indoors. They were asking for safer public spaces, better policing, improved infrastructure and accountability. Students also spoke about the different freedoms given to sons and daughters and the constant pressure on women to modify their behaviour because of the possibility of violence.
The Supreme Court has also raised the issue of prevention and deterrence while hearing a case concerning recent rape incidents in Delhi-NCR, saying women should be able to feel safe even late at night and while using public transport.
Safety should not mean restricting girls. It should mean making the world safer for them to move through.
Do girls really get to choose their education?
Even if a girl has the opportunity to study, can she really choose where she studies?
A girl may get permission to attend college in her own city but not be allowed to move somewhere else for a better opportunity. She may be encouraged to study but still have her course, college or career decided by the people around her.
The same applies to work. She may be told that she can have a career, but only if the job is nearby, the timings are suitable or it does not interfere with expectations around marriage and family.
The opportunity may be available, but the final choice may still not be hers.
Does earning money mean having financial agency?
We often see earning money as proof that a woman is independent. But earning money and having control over it are not always the same thing.
A woman may earn her own salary but still have decisions about spending, saving or investing made for her. She may have to turn down a better job because it requires moving cities or choose work according to what is considered convenient for the family.
Financial independence should mean more than earning. It should also mean having a say in what happens to your money and your career.
How much choice do girls really have in marriage?
The 2026 theme for International Day of the Girl is “End child marriage and invest in girls’ rights.”
UNICEF places the freedom to learn, make choices and define one’s own future at the centre of girls’ rights.
Child marriage is one of the clearest examples of a girl’s future being decided for her. But even when marriage happens after the legal age, the question of choice remains.
A girl may be told that marriage is up to her, but how free is that choice when caste, religion, class, community and family approval are involved?
Sometimes girls may technically have options, but those options have already been filtered for them.
When will we stop deciding for girls?
Girls are repeatedly told to become independent, but independence cannot come with a long list of conditions.
A girl cannot be encouraged to build a career while somebody else decides where she can work. She cannot be told marriage is her choice while being given limits on who is acceptable. She cannot be told she has freedom while that freedom changes depending on the time of day, the place she wants to go or how unsafe somebody else has made it.
So perhaps the question for International Day of the Girl should not simply be whether we are giving girls enough opportunities. It should be whether we are giving them enough say.
We need to stop saying, “I’m letting her decide.”
The decision was hers to begin with.
Agency begins when a girl’s life stops being something other people manage for her and becomes something she is trusted to shape herself.
