Ranchi, April 6: A tribal schoolgirl from a remote Simdega village, some 30km from district headquarters, this morning marched to the SP's office, her teacher in tow, asking the police to stop her parents from getting her married off on April 21.
Fifteen-year-old Sakina Kumari, a Class VIII student of the upgraded middle school in village Kullukera, some 180km from capital Ranchi, said her farmer parents had fixed her marriage with a boy from Chhattisgarh's Jashpur district, had taken loans from villagers to make the celebrations lavish beyond their means and even got wedding cards printed.
Accompanied by her schoolteacher Brahmadutta Nayak, the girl stressed before Simdega SP Rajeev Ranjan Singh and his colleagues that she was having none of it.
"I am the eldest of four siblings and I want to study and get a job," Sakina said. "My parents Khuyu Nayak and Rajmuni Devi want to marry me off as they feel they don't have the money to educate me and this is the only way to get me settled, but I want to study for a better life," said the daughter of the marginal farmer.
Impressed, the SP immediately sent a police team to Kullukera village to seize wedding invitation cards and other circumstantial evidence that could lead to her father's arrest under Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006.
The SP added an FIR had been lodged against Sakina's father Khuyu Nayak and intended father-in-law in Chhattisgarh, Gajadhar Nayak.
Stressing that logic worked better in these cases than force, the SP said poor rural parents had to change age-old attitudes of marrying off daughters early.
For Sakina, the SP said he had spoken to Simdega DC Vijoy Kumar Singh to facilitate her admission to one of the Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya residential schools.
"The DC has approved my proposal. We will make arrangements for her studies at government expense," the SP said, adding the girl had been handed over to district child welfare committee.
On February 2, village girl Mamta Kumari (14) from Ghaghra in Gumla had defied her father's fiat to get married and contacted district legal services authority to stop her wedding. Last year, Birsamuni Kumari (13) from Palkot in Gumla had also revolted against her proposed marriage.
Mamta and Birsamuni are now studying at the Kasturba residential school in Palkot. Their parents were let off when they promised they would let their daughters study. Chief minister Raghubar Das had given both girls Rs 1 lakh each.
Will Sakina also get the chief minister's cash blessings?
"Officially, there is no provision of giving ex-gratia sums to minors opposing their early marriage. In the Gumla cases, the chief minister had used his discretionary powers to encourage the girls. Here too, he may show equal generosity. But, I can't recommend anything officially," said DC Singh.
