As the world's largest spir­i­tu­al or­gan­i­sa­tion led by women, the Brah­ma Ku­maris World Spir­i­tu­al Uni­ver­si­ty (BKW­SU) is es­pe­cial­ly com­mit­ted to the re­al­i­sa­tion of the po­ten­tial of girls and women.

We un­der­stand that it is not on­ly the right of girls and women to be ed­u­cat­ed and to ex­press their tal­ents and po­ten­tial to the fullest ex­tent, but it is al­so in the best in­ter­est of our world to ex­pe­ri­ence the un­re­strict­ed gifts of women and girls.

Child mar­riage lim­its their ed­u­ca­tion, in­hibits their health and com­pro­mis­es the full po­ten­tial of girls to con­tribute to the world, at a time when we most need their con­tri­bu­tion. The BKW­SU un­equiv­o­cal­ly sup­ports gen­der equal­i­ty and op­pos­es the prac­tice of child mar­riage.

Since 1983, the BKW­SU has worked in con­sul­ta­tive sta­tus with the Eco­nom­ic and So­cial Coun­cil of the Unit­ed Na­tions. The role of the Brah­ma Ku­maris has been to con­nect what the UN was do­ing on a glob­al scale with BKW­SU projects in the same ar­eas of so­cial and hu­man­i­tar­i­an de­vel­op­ment. By us­ing its ex­per­tise in spir­i­tu­al growth, the Brah­ma Ku­maris have been con­trib­u­tors to many UN ini­tia­tives. Sup­port­ing glob­al ac­tion on a per­son­al scale across cul­tures and con­ti­nents has been the hall­mark of the Brah­ma Ku­maris' par­tic­i­pa­tion with the UN.

The BKW­SU whole­heart­ed­ly en­dors­es the 2030 Agen­da for Sus­tain­able De­vel­op­ment and the Sus­tain­able De­vel­op­ment Goals, adopt­ed at the Unit­ed Na­tions Sus­tain­able De­vel­op­ment Sum­mit on Sep­tem­ber 25, 2015. In par­tic­u­lar, we reaf­firm our sup­port for Goal 5: "Achieve gen­der equal­i­ty and em­pow­er all women and girls"; Tar­get 5.3: "Elim­i­nate all harm­ful prac­tices, such as child, ear­ly and forced mar­riage, and fe­male gen­i­tal mu­ti­la­tion". Many in­ter­na­tion­al agree­ments al­ready out­law child mar­riage, in­clud­ing the Con­ven­tion on the Rights of the Child and the Con­ven­tion on the Elim­i­na­tion of all Forms of Dis­crim­i­na­tion against Women.

A cen­tral theme of the Brah­ma Ku­maris is that in or­der for change to oc­cur in the out­er world, there has to be a con­cur­rent trans­for­ma­tion of the in­ner aware­ness that is pred­i­cat­ed up­on the dig­ni­ty and worth of all peo­ple. Ac­cord­ing to Gay­a­tri Naraine, Brah­ma Ku­maris rep­re­sen­ta­tive to the UN in New York, USA: "This spir­i­tu­al tra­jec­to­ry is the vi­tal force that in­flu­ences whether we move to­wards a so­cial­ly, eco­log­i­cal­ly and spir­i­tu­al­ly sat­is­fy­ing fu­ture or whether we move in­to fur­ther vi­o­lence, pover­ty and en­vi­ron­men­tal degra­da­tion."

The BKW­SU up­holds spir­i­tu­al prin­ci­ples that nour­ish the in­ner world of self-re­spect, build­ing a foun­da­tion of dig­ni­ty for our­selves, our fam­i­lies and our so­ci­ety. The UN Sus­tain­able De­vel­op­ment goals re­lat­ed to gen­der equal­i­ty and the em­pow­er­ment of women and girls are con­sis­tent with our be­liefs and prac­tices, and we look for­ward to sup­port­ing these goals in our cen­tres world­wide.

Sis Mo­hi­ni Pan­jabi

Rep­re­sen­ta­tive to the UN in NY

Sis Jayan­ti Kir­palani

Rep­re­sen­ta­tive to the UN in Gene­va BK

Dr Hem­la­ta Sanghi

Brah­ma Ku­maris Ra­ja Yo­ga Cen­tre Inc