By: Rajesh Bhat
It is the 21st century and India is eyeing to accomplish a dream of Vision of 2020, as has been envisaged by her former Scientist- President Dr A P J Abdul Kalam. But unfortunately some areas of this great land are still grey and caught up in the old, ill and conservative traditions that have already played havoc with the society.
Despite the so-called stringent laws, Indians still come across dreadful and fearful stories when the minor children of the country are forced to tie the nuptial knots even when their body and mind are not ready for any such relation at a tiny age.
Incidents of child marriage seem to be still prevalent in India. One such gory incident has recently come to fore in the remote village of Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir, where a 10 year old girl, a student of Class IV, was `sold’ to a man three times of her age. More shocking was that the girl, who stayed put at her father’s house soon after the illegal marriage, was even raped by her own `husband’.
As some of the villagers had objected to the marriage of this girl child at a young age, it was unilaterally decided that she would stay in her parental house till she achieves marriageable age. But her husband, Rinku, who reportedly had `purchased’ this minor child, wanted to take her to his house in village Bandota.
It was the outcome of not getting the girl-child that Rinku visited her parental house few days back where he raped her in a nearby field. Some local newspapers, carrying the story, claimed that a complaint was lodged by the mother of the child at Munsif court in Billawar. The accused has also been arrested after a case was registered against him under Section 376 Ranbir Panel Code (RPC) — a special law to deal with rape cases in Jammu and Kashmir.
This shocking incident is not the first of its kind in this remote area. Due to the ignorance, unawareness and poverty, incidents of child marriage, like in other parts of the country, are also taking part in Jammu and Kashmir. But then people prefer not to report the same. Instead, the poor parents want to `get rid’ of the girl child and also simultaneously getting money for it! The incidents of transportation of brides from West Bengal to Kashmir are also occasionally becoming newspaper scoops!