Sagarika (name changed) was then just 15 years when her father fixed her marriage with a man double her age. She was studying in Class IX and wanted to continue like any other girl of her age.
Initially she couldn’t understand what is going on, but when her father repeatedly told her marriage has been fixed she was scared.
“When I opposed and refused to marry so early my father started beating. He even locked me inside a room for days. He didn’t allow me to attend school till I concede. Even my mother couldn’t help me in this regard as she had no voice over my father’s decision,” says the girl.
When the situation became out of control and she found no hope from any quarter, without thinking any repercussion of the situation, she ran away from home. After reaching Nayagarh town, she was roaming here and there, when local Childline personnel noticed her and took her to a short stay home. Since January (2017) Sagarika has been staying in the short stay home in Nayagarh town with a hope that soon she will have a better future.
Surabhi (name changed), another 16 years old, ran away from her home when her widowed mother fixed her marriage and prevented her to go to school. She was appearing class 9th examination and this news completely shattered her. “When my mother explained about the marriage plan, I couldn’t utter a word. I was even scared to react against it,” says the girl. Hailing from a poor family, Surabhi knows how difficulties her mother has faced to raise all the children after her father’s death. Her mother works as an agriculture labourer and faced numerous difficulties in raising her four siblings.
Surabhi tried to convince her mother many times. When she failed she ran away from her home. She was spotted and rescued by a local journalist and he shifted her to a short stay home. Presently, Surabhi is staying in the short stay home and pursuing her studies with other inmates. “I have a dream; I want to complete my studies and do a job to earn and support my family,” says the minor.
The above two cases are a few where girls ran away from home to stand against child marriage, most of the time they have had to obey their parent’s decision. Besides, there are 70-oddchild marriage cases, where Nayagarh Childline intervened and convinced parents to stop the marriage, since they started operating last year. “Whenever we get a call about child marriage, we rush to the spot, convince parents to stop the marriage, at least till they are adult,” says Ritushree Mohanty, counselor Childline. She adds, “Most of the time we find parents are unaware of law and poverty force them to wash off their hands by getting their daughters’ marriage early. They feel girls in their growing age are a burden on them, if they don’t marry early.”
“To stop a child marriage in a community with patriarchal social norms is not that easy. Sometimes the entire village stands against us. Even if we take the help of police, they hide the girl, or sometimes parents sneak out the place. The villagers become mute to explain anything, so we keep a vigil on every act,” she explains, continuing, “In May last year, we received a call regarding a child marriage in Khandapada block. We went to the particular village, while discussing with the bride, we asked about her age and she said she is only 16 years. When we discussed with her parents, we found apart from poverty and dowry related issues, ignorance of law is another reason of early marriage.”
The National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) reveals that in Odisha, 21.3 per cent young women in the age group of 20-24 years (during the time of survey) were married off before the legal age limit of 18-year. Malkangiri, Nabarangpur, Mayurbhanj, Koraput, Rayagada and Nayagarh are the top six districts which recorded more than 30 per cent women aged between 20 and 24 years married off before the legal age. It is evident that child marriage is prevalent in all districts, but women aged between 20-24 years married before attaining their legal age is mostly in the scheduled tribe areas, except Nayagarh.
“Poverty, gender inequality and lack of knowledge regarding law push parents to take this drastic step,” says UshaPatnaik, an activist who has been working on child marriage issue for a long time in Nayagarh.
Girls are often seen as a liability with limited economic role. Women’s work is confined to the household and is not valued. Besides, there is the problem of dowry. “Girls in these areas are considered as a burden and families are eager to get rid of them. Practices such as dowry and marriage related expenses have been the main reason for such perception. lower dowry plays an important role for promoting girl child marriage. Parents feel they have to pay higher dowry if their daughters become adults,” says Ghasiram Panda, advisor to Child Rights Commission, Odisha.
“Child marriage is a complex issue which affects various life outcome of a girl such as education, health, labour and leads to various forms of violence. It is the result of prevalent social norms that underpin child marriage. Hence, in order to address the issues of child marriage, those social norms need to be identified and changed,” says Rukmini Panda, a researcher and writer on women’s issues.
Dropout of girls from schools in rural areas is another major reason of child marriage. Right to Education Act 2010 entitles every child has the right to free and compulsory education till the completion of elementary education in a neighbourhood school. Unfortunately, this compulsory elementary education is up to the age of 14 years, so in remote villages, most of the girls are dropped out once they finish class 7th.
“Since the implementation of RTE, we have been demanding to extend the age limit from 14 to 18 years, so that children can complete higher secondary education without interruption. At present, girls in rural areas, after finishing class 7, drop out from schools to engage in household works. And parents feel it is better to marry them off rather than to keep at home,” says Anil Pradhan, State convener, RTE OdishaForum.
In remote villages, it is mandatory for every girl to marry, but once they continue higher secondary education, it gives them strength to raise voice against early marriage. Some of them even convince their parents about adverse impact of early marriage. But their number is less. During discussion some girls say “Higher secondary schools are quite far from our village, and it was not safe to travel on daily basis. So we preferred to stay at home”. If anyone wants to continue studies, financial constraints deter her to take that step.
However, Nayagarh District Child Protection Unit has initiated a mechanism to tackle child marriage issues. District Child Protection Officer Pritikant Panda explains, “We have developed a format/ form which will be filled up by Childline, whenever they will receive a call related to child marriage. Immediately they will send the format to concerned Child Marriage Prohibition Officer, District Social Welfare Officer and DCPO through either by WhatsApp or e-mail. This
will help to keep a track of how many child marriages have been stopped, what actions have been taken and what are the necessary steps taken to provide support to the victim.”
There is a need of convergence to work with other key department like Health, labour, Education, PRI, Home and skill.
“This should be the main agenda of these departments, because some departments have a preventive role and some have a prosecution role. Three “Ps” –prevention, protection and prosecution are necessary to deal with child marriage issue,” says State Resource Centre advisor Dr Amrita Patel.