Coimbatore, Nov. 11: Fourteen-year old Radha (name changed) was living with her grandmother after the death of her parents and enjoying her carefree school days when disaster struck in the form of her paternal aunt from Chennai. The woman promised her mother that it would be a change for Radha and took her to Chennai. There she convinced the young girl to marry her 34-year old son Suresh (name changed) who was recovering from a broken engagement. The grandmother was also brainwashed and the marriage was “solemnised” in her house in Coimbatore.
A very anaemic and frail Radha could not satisfy the sexual urges of Suresh. She was beaten up and tortured when she failed to co-operate. A neighbour in Coimbatore tipped off Childline on their helpline number 1098 and volunteers rescued her. Today she is mentally disturbed and in need of care.
When it comes to co-existence, like the good and the profane, there is also the legal and illegal. While on the one side girls are outshining boys in studies, on the other there are many getting married before the age of 18, which as per Indian Law is considered to be child marriage.
Public awareness about child marriages is dismal just because these incidents do not come to light. It is also a belief that such marriages do not occur in urban centres like Coimbatore, which is a myth. According to statistics available with Childline Coimbatore, there have been 31 childmarriages in the last five months alone, and these are only the reported ones.
“There are many that go unreported. Along with Radha there were three other cases in November, i.e. in the last 10 days. And, all the girls were 14 years of age,” says Childline Co-ordinator S. Uma.
While earlier poverty was the foremost reason for the families getting their daughters married off early, increasingly now it is fear for their safety, like in the case of Mala (name changed), who was fortunate enough to escape from becoming a child bride.
Daughter of an alcoholic and a mill-worker mother who worked long and odd hours, her only misfortune was to have been born beautiful. This is what triggered her mother to marry off her 14-year old daughter “before something could bring dishonour to the family”. She found a match for her in a 24-year old man from Salem. Mala was smart enough to take the matter to her class teacher, who tipped off Childline and hence Mala was rescued before marriage.
Though the Police, Childline and the Department of Social Welfare work constantly to put an end to child marriages, this becomes a humongous task without the support of the public.
Prevention is the best recourse, according to Ms. Uma. Once the girl is married, it becomes a very difficult task to rehabilitate her. Most of the times the girl resigns herself to the situation and for the sake of the family refuses to lodge a complaint against her husband or walk away from the marriage, like in the case of Radha. She knows that her only option is to go back to poverty or a home where she will not be accepted. And, according to the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006, the child marriage “shall be voidable at the option of the contracting party who was achild at the time of the marriage”.
The Department of Social Work and Childline are conducting school-level and block-level awareness programmes about protecting the girl child, not only from child marriage, but also physical and sexual abuse, and substance abuse. They are being made to understand that child marriage is not the solution to any problem.