Pintu Devi was only six when she was married to a ten-year-old. Her in-laws were allegedly involved in criminal activities, and Pintu’s family felt intimidated. The child and her parents faced social boycott if her child marriage was terminated. A years passed before she approached the Jodhpur-based Saarthi Trust and moved the Family Court seeking dissolution of her childhood marriage. The court admitted her plea and issued notice to her ‘husband’ earlier this month.
If the court annuls the marriage, it will be the 37th case of an illegal marriage involving minor girls being invalidated in Rajasthan. Many young girls who find themselves trapped in child marriages are today exploring options and searching for career avenues after the annulment.
Highest incidence
Child marriages are rampant in Rajasthan, a phenomenon attributed to its feudal background, patriarchal society, poverty, and legal loopholes. Thousands of young girls become child brides on the auspicious day of Akshay Tritiya every year. A study by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) showed that Rajasthan has the highest incidence of child marriage in the country.
According to the National Family Health Survey 2015-16 data, 40.5% of the women in the 20-24 years age group in rural Rajasthan said they got married before they were 18. Such women make up 20.3% in the urban areas. Though child marriage in the desert State is a traditional custom, the alliance often fails when the individuals grow up. When they want to call off the marriage, elders and caste panchayats resist.
A provision in the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, which replaced the Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929, has come to the rescue of girls. Section 3 of the 2006 Act makes child marriages voidable if the contracting party was a child. A petition under this section may be filed in the court before the person seeking annulment completes two years of attaining majority.
It was not until 2012 that the first decree in the country for child marriage annulment was granted in the case of Laxmi Sargara in Jodhpur. She had approached the Saarthi Trust when her parents, after her 18th birthday, asked her to go to her in-laws’ home. A resident of Luni village, she was given in marriage when she was just a year-old baby. Laxmi’s husband was two years older. Saarthi Trust’s managing trustee Kriti Bharti said under the law, a party to child marriage is not required to prove cruelty or violence, but just the fact of marriage during childhood. The Trust took up her case and got her marriage annulled.
“We have also succeeded in preventing about 1,200 child marriages, while our 10 petitions for child marriage annulment are pending in the Family Courts in Jodhpur and elsewhere,” Dr. Bharti said.
Some of the girls rescued stay in her shelter home here and pursue academic courses. Pinki Kanwar, 19, from Thanagazi in Alwar won the battle against her marriage in January this year and is pursuing a B.Ed. As a child bride, she underwent mental torture when her husband and in-laws insisted that she join them.
The parents of Suman (name changed) pledged to get her married off when she was just 10 months old. Her in-laws consented to annulment, though.
