Dowries have been illegal in India since 1961, but the practice of a bride’s family gifting money to a groom’s is still widespread in many parts of the country. The dowry system inevitably marginalises poor Indian women, who become financial liabilities and are pressured to marry landowning suitors while they are still teenage girls. After My Garden Grows follows 16-year-old Monika as she learns basic agricultural techniques through a programme called the Girls Project, aimed at empowering West Bengali women to avoid child marriage and improve their social standing through financial independence.
Director: Megan Mylan
videoAnthropology
Margaret Mead explains why the family was entering a brave new world in this 1959 film
29 minutes
videoDemography and migration
In California’s farmlands, immigrant workers share their stories of toil and hope
17 minutes
videoSports and games
Young Palestinians find fleeting moments of freedom at a West Bank skate park
13 minutes
videoHistory of science
Meet the Quaker pacifist who shattered British science’s highest glass ceilings
14 minutes
videoGender
A catchy tune explains the world’s ‘isms’ – according to your mum doing the laundry
5 minutes
videoHuman rights and justice
Surreal, dazzling visuals form an Iranian expat’s tribute to defiance back home
10 minutes
videoHistory
Hags, seductresses, feminist icons – how gender dynamics manifest in witches
13 minutes
videoLove and friendship
Never marry a man you love too much, and other views on romance in Sierra Leone
5 minutes
videoEngineering
Can monumental ‘ice stupas’ help remote Himalayan villages survive?
15 minutes