Voices can be deceptive, a 15-year-old boy in Assam discovered to his chagrin after his telephonic romance with a 60-year-old widow sparked by a wrong number ended up in a ‘marriage’ neither wanted.
The resident of western Assam’s Goalpara district, who had dialled the older woman’s number accidentally about a month ago, fell in love with the female voice that answered the call.
After calling each other regularly, sometimes more than once a day, without ever disclosing their ages, the school dropout, who works as a mason, decided to visit the “girl with the voice to die for” and went to Sukhuwajhar village in Barpeta district across the Brahmaputra.
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His dream was shattered when the voice he had fallen in love with turned out to be that of a 60-year-old woman. The minor said the members of the woman’s family and her neighbours forced him to marry her, overriding both their objections.
The woman said she had befriended the boy because she liked the way he spoke and had not wanted to get married to him. “We took note of the incident and asked the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR) to take necessary action,” said Nirmal Deka, coordinator of Guwahati-based NGO Childline.
A spokesperson for the SCPRC said they had taken suo motu cognisance. “If the boy is found to be a minor as reported, the people responsible can be charged with violation of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act of 2006,” he said.
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Goalpara district’s Deputy Commissioner Varnali Deka said there had been no official complaint about a forced marriage of a minor. “But the officials concerned have been asked to investigate,” she said.