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Jaisalmer, a town in Rajasthan, India, has one of the lowest adult female literacy rate in the country - below 40%. Shocking as it might seem, for generations, parents have been choosing marriage over education for their daughters. It was not the same for sons; leading to a staggering 28% literacy rate gap between men and women.

Our key objective was to bring a behavioural change in the parents of Jaisalmer, and let them, for the first time, give this life-changing choice to their daughters. With this, we hoped to reduce the inequality and give these girls a chance to study further.

We wanted the girls of Jaisalmer to have the choice to decide what they would want to choose - Education or Marriage. Pehle Padhai, Phir Shaadi (Education First, Marriage Later) was our step in that direction.

It started with M.S. Dhoni, India's most popular celebrity, appealing to the parents of Jaisalmer to be a part of the World’s Biggest Social Experiment by giving their daughters this life-changing choice. The entire city was a part of the experiment.

The girls choosing education were celebrated in the customary way of the city, with a special art on the walls of their homes – the Education Art.

Inspired from the Wedding Art, the new-age Education Art had:

- Goddess Saraswati, the goddess of education

- Name of the daughter with the course she chose to study

- Wishes for a great future.

- A message of pride from the family supporting this choice.

Our campaign's PR strategy was simple - to put the choice given to the daughters at the forefront – celebrate it and show it to everyone. With the most popular cricketer in the country, M.S. Dhoni, our campaign sparked the conversation among parents in Jaisalmer.

Along with that, the girls who made the choice were covered in local and national publications, making them the face of a new Jaisalmer. Our appeal was heard not only by the people of Jaisalmer but of the whole country.

Youth publications further organically amplified the voices of these brave girls, helping them inspire more girls across the country.

The new Education Art painted outside houses of those who chose education over marriage, stood tall against the deep-rooted Wedding Art and further amplified our message of Education First, Marriage Later.

During the peak wedding season in Jaisalmer, the campaign was kickstarted with M.S. Dhoni's featured series of films, appealing to parents to give the critical choice to their daughters. With this, each citizen of Jaisalmer was sent SMSs asking them to reply with their choice. Participants could simply reply with M or E, for marriage and education respectively.

While many chose marriage, few stood against the tide and made the courageous decision to study further. The walls of their homes were decorated with the newly-created Education Art, celebrating their decision. The Education Art featured:

- Goddess Saraswati, the goddess of education

- Name of the daughter with the course she chose to study

- Wishes for a great future.

- A message of pride from the family supporting this choice.

These paintings stood to be symbols of inspiration for the future generation of girls to put education before marriage.

With the campaign, we reached 34.13M and gathered 12.71M video views. Our total SMS interaction with parents came in at 1183 messages while 427 responses were registered.

But among all those, 8 is the number that stands out. 8 lives were changed thanks to the campaign when these girls decided to choose education.

This choice was celebrated with Education Art proudly painted on the walls of their homes.

These girls were covered widely, garnering earnt media worth INR 9.26M.

These 8 walls stood tall, sparking a discussion among parents while inspiring the future generation of girls to choose education over marriage.