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Daring to fight the custom

By Our Staff Correspondent

Anganwadi worker Rukmat Jharia with Shakuntalabai (right) who was married on April 21 and her sister, Sitabai, whose parents were dissuaded from giving the child in marriage, in Khursipar village, Kawardha. — Photo: Aarti Dhar

KAWARDHA (Chhatisgarh) APRIL 28. With the elected representatives shying away to speak out openly against child marriage for fear of losing their voters, the responsibility of checking the practice has now fallen totally on the anganwadi workers. Child marriages have been going on all over Chhatisgarh, particularly in Kawardha district, for ages, with the elected representatives attending the ceremonies. Sudden condemnation of this practice is certain to attract the wrath of the people.

The Marar community, categorised as OBC, comprises around15 per cent of the entire population of the district, with more than 50 per cent living below the poverty line. The Bodla and Pandaria blocks have a large percentage of the community practising child marriages, as a result of which the infant mortality rate stands at 70 per cent and the female literary rate at 39 per cent, though showing improvement since the 1991 census when it was just 11 per cent.

A visit to some villages under Bodla block revealed that the role of gram sabhas and gram panchayats has remained confined to passing resolutions against child marriages. No effort has been made by either the sarpanchs or the members of any gram panchayat to publicly denounce the practice.

On the other hand, the role of the anganwadi workers has been commendable. They have actually gone door-to-door trying to prevent such marriages, though with little success. The anganwadi workers, too, fear ex-communication from the village in case they put more pressure on the villagers. In fact an anganwadi worker of Khursipar village, Rukmak Jharia, did succeed in persuading Itwari Lal, a labourer, not to go ahead with the marriage of his 6-year-old daughter, Sitabai, with Sahib Lal (8), though his elder daughter, Shakuntalabai got married because the boy's family refused to wait.

The distribution of pamphlets during the Bhoramdeo festival earlier this month impressed a Class-VIII student, Pratap, so much that he refused to get married on April 21 despite pressure from the family. Pratap's elder brother, Prakash, was married on that day but he has eloped with another woman.

The rate of divorce among the Marar community is high, primarily because of incompatibility, explains Nandlal Choudhary, District Women and Child Welfare Officer.

Importantly, divorce and re-marriage known as ``churi pehnana'' are so easy that the sanctity of the institution of marriage has virtually been lost.

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• Daring to fight the custom
• Villagers defend child marriages

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