Rajasthan: 'Child Brides In Schools Common', Teachers Highlight Crisis

There was a bit of discomfort when teachers of a Rajasthan school witnessed two teenage girls stride in bearing the signs of a newlywed bride. The girls are siblings with one being 15 years old and the other 16. The former is in class 9 and the latter is in class 10 of a government school in the Hindoli area of Bundi district. The sibling duo belong to the OBC category and hails from Hanuman ji Ka Jhopda village. They were married on July 15. But teachers of the school were not surprised to see the girls all decked up as newlywed. 

It is not uncommon to see girls coming to school as married. Husbands often drop their little brides at school. Neither does the community of the Bundi district in Rajasthan find it unusual to get teenage girls married off, nor the teachers. 

The two girl's aunt who works as a house help in Bundi City bought a lot of gifts worth Rs 10,000. She took a leave from work to arrange the wedding. "Being the elder aunt (tai) of the girls, I did the 'kanyadaan' of Rani, one of the two child brides," the aunt told Press Trust of India, as quoted by the Telegraph India.

When asked about the child brides in school, the teachers said that they often witness this happening and unfortunately they can do nothing about it. 

Last year, a class 7 girl was engaged to a class 9 boy in Sukhpura village of Hindoli. Another girl from class 7 was married last year. A class 10 girl was married off to an electric pole maintenance worker on March 4. 

Two teenage girls dropped out of class 12 to stay with their in-laws after getting married last year. 

As per the National Family Health Survey-5 reported that 23.3% of women aged 20-24 were married at the age of 18.

Hence teachers said that the early marriage of the two siblings was not unusual. Trying to complain to the authorities doesn't make any change, a teacher said. They also added that there is always the risk of instigating the local community's wrath which leads to girls dropping out of schools.

When teachers were asked about the two girls' wedding, they just ignorantly said that the girls were absent from school for a lot of days. 

What is the reason behind the early marriages?

Bundi district general secretary of BJP's OBC forum Dikshant Soni said that child marriages do happen in the village and there is a need to amend the Child Marriage Act. Soni blamed the poverty of the rural parents as one of the reasons behind child marriage. He also said that a "changing environment with food habits" leading to "early puberty" is also forcing parents to marry boys and girls early to prevent them from eloping with someone. 

Deputy Director of Social Justice and Women Empowerment Department Bhairu Prakash Nagar said that these marriages often happen during Akshaya Tritya. But when asked about the marriage of the two girls, he said he had no information about it. 

But Local Deputy Superintendent of Police Ghanshyam Meena denied reports of child marriage in the area.

Assam's measure to eliminate child marriage 

However, some states are coming forward to eliminate child marriages. On July 18, the Assam Cabinet decided to repeal the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Registration Act and Rules of 1935 to reduce the menace of child marriages in the state. The Chief Minister of Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma, shared the news through a tweet which said that the repealing is aimed to "ensure justice for our daughters and sisters by putting additional safeguards against child marriage." It also aims at bringing  "parity in registration of marriage and divorce." The proposal for discarding the law will be presented in the next monsoon session of the assembly.