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India’s female firefighters extinguish gender stereotypes

by Nita Bhalla

Married before her eighteenth birthday, Nirma Chaudhary could well have ended up like thousands of other child brides in India's desert state of Rajasthan - forced to quit school and consigned to a life without opportunities as a wife and mother.

But the village girl's conviction to study after marriage, support from her family, and a government initiative aimed at empowering women, has transformed her fate from being that of a just another invisible child bride to becoming one of Rajasthan's first female firefighters

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