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Child marriages a blot on Telangana
Laxmi, 15, a tenth class student from Kothapalem, Dharoor mandal, Gadwal district, is a lucky girl for she escaped marriage to a three-times older person two months ago due to the timely intervention of an NGO.
Hyderabad: Laxmi, 15, a tenth class student from Kothapalem, Dharoor mandal, Gadwal district, is a lucky girl for she escaped marriage to a three-times older person two months ago due to the timely intervention of an NGO.
Her parents were counselled the moment they got wind of the proposed marriage. However, not many girls in their teens are as lucky as Laxmi (name changed on request).
The reasons for child marriages range from bizarre to ridiculous. One such reason is prediction by astrologers that if they do not get the girls married it may be difficult to get them married off.
Social customs in certain communities require girls to be married once they attain puberty and by and large parents decide to marry off daughters in the belief that they are securing their future even to men who are in their 40s.
M S Chandra, director, Centre for Action Research and People’s Development (CARPED) an NGO working in Sangareddy district says, “The malice is so vast spread that we could stop just 169 child marriages in the last two years as all the stake-holders right from Anganwadi workers, MRO and higher officials vanish when an issue of child marriage surfaces. The rules are in place but the will to stop is absent.”
In a recent incident, a family tried to marry off a 17-year-old girl from Shamshabad mandal to a 37-year-old man. Interestingly, the groom is a post-graduate who accepted the proposal on the advice of an astrologer who said that if the girl does not get into wedlock immediately, there was no chance of him getting married in future.
Superstition, false belief of parents that they are securing the future of the girl and pressure from the community is taking a huge toll on girls in Telangana. Rubina Philip, Manager-Child Protection, Mahita, an NGO says, “There is a new trend emerging of girls being trafficked from Adilabad and neighbouring towns of Maharashtra to Haryana and Punjab. Girls are married and packed off to northern states.”
In spite of Child Helpline in all the districts, people in rural areas still fear of calling and informing. Most of the marriages also happen due to school dropouts. Rubina says, “Once a girl drops out of school, parents want to get rid of her as they consider her as a burden. About 30.55% of girl children are school dropouts in Telangana as per the UNICEF study conducted in 2013-14.”
A child rights activist says that there are ample laws but mindset of the people at large needs to change. Parents should stop seeing girl as a burden. Chandra says that Telangana ranks fourth in the human trafficking cases in the country and this is a blot on the state.
At a time when girls need to go to school and chalk out a bright future, child brides are subjected to forced sexual relations that leave them scarred emotionally and physically for life.
