In an anti-climax to a family drama that played out on the regional television channels all through Wednesday, a 25-year-old man from Nashik – who had divorced his wife within 48 hours of his marriage on the grounds that she had failed the “virginity test” apologised to her and took her back as his wife.
Hours after the Maharashtra Women’s Commission directed the Nashik Police to investigate media reports that a husband decided to divorce his wife after she failed the ‘virginity test’, the husband – who appeared with his “divorced” wife on regional television channels – said that he had apologised to his wife and decided to take her back. The wife also appreciated the husband’s gesture and announced that she was joining her husband.
Both the husband and wife hit out at a caste panchayat which had forced him to subject his spouse to a virginity test. Both of them entered into wedlock at Sangamner in Ahmednagar district on May 22.
On the second day of their marriage, the wife was subjected to “virginity test” by the caste panchayat. With the wife failing the test, she was sent back to her parents’ place based on the orders of the caste panchayat. This was despite the girl’s pleas that she was, in fact, a virgin and that her lack of bleeding could be due to the vigorous exercise she went through in preparation for the police force.
Incidentally, the latest was his second marriage. Both the husband and wife belong to the ’Kanajarbhat’ community which has two sects Dera Sachha and Khandpith. The community has its own ‘constitution’ which is followed rigorously.
It was two members of the blind belief eradication committee members -- Krishna Chandgude and Ranjana Gavande – who brought the incident to light.
Krishna Chandgude, activist of the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti, said he went to the house and spoke to the girl and her parents and tried to convince her father to file a police complaint, but the latter was afraid of the caste panchayat.
However, after the regional television channels reported the incident in details, the husband – who had earlier said that the woman had not bled after intercourse and rejected her as his wife – developed cold feet and decided to take his “divourced” wife back.
Meanwhile, working president of the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samit Avinash Patil was the first state to pass a law against social boycott and illogical justice meted out by such panchayats — the Maharashtra Protection of People from Social Boycott (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2016, which is awaiting the President’s nod. “If the Act is implemented, then we can do without such incidents,” he said.