Child marriages in Rajasthan are poll-itically correct

HARSH REALITY: Recently a video of a five-year-old girl and a 10-year-old boy getting married in Ajmer emerged.

ibnlive.com is on mobile now. Read news, watch videos
be a Citizen Journalist. Log on to m.ibnlive.com NOW!

Related Stories

Top Headlines

Top Videos

Most Popular

• I have done everything for all the states: Mamata 

• Mamata's Budget express chugs in with goodies 

• NO INCREASE IN PASSENGER FARES, FREIGHT TARIFF 

• Top bosses fly high as AI struggles to survive 

• Lalu, Mamata are not on the same track 

• Watch: Aam aadmi rates Rail Budget 2009 

• Popular demands met, slew of sops in Rail Budget 

• Schemes: Duronto for metros | Yuva trains | Izzat ticket 

• Double-decker trains on select inter-city routes 

• Roddick knocks out Murray, to face Federer in final 

• I have done everything for all the states: Mamata 

• Watch: Lalu determined to derail Mamata express 

• Cabinet split over order legalising homosexuality  

• Watch: People don Pranab Mukherjee's role 

• PM gives thumbs up to Mamata's Budget 

• Watch: Aam aadmi rates Rail Budget 2009 

• Watch: B-school students' Budget wishlist 

• CEO Speak: Healthcare sector wants industry status 

• Indians want FM to re-introduce standard deduction 

• For Delhi Daredevils fans it's football in off season 

• Full text: Railways Budget 2009 

• Mamata's Budget express chugs in with goodies 

• I had 'consensual' sex with maid: Shiney Ahuja 

• Masand's Movie Review: Kambakkht Ishq vulgar, offensive 

• Lalu, Mamata are not on the same track 

• Double-decker trains on select inter-city routes 

• Air France Flight 447 hit the sea, belly first 

• I have done everything for all the states: Mamata 

• Cabinet split over order legalising homosexuality  

• Varun Gandhi's speeches give him trouble again 

Photogallery

Find us on Facebook | Join IBNLive community

Stay ahead with G-Talk Buddy | Click now!

Jaipur: As Rajasthan prepares for Assembly election on December 4, child marriages continues to be a harsh reality in the state.

Recently a footage of a five-year-old girl and a ten-year-old boy getting married in an Ajmer Village emerged, indicating that with eyes on votes, checking child marriages is low on priority for all the political parties. In fact, many child marriages were only recently 'solemnised' around the auspicious Dev Uthni Ekadashi.

The district administration, which is supposed to check such marriages Under the Prevention of Child Marriages Act, says it is helpless.

"Koi bhi kanoon bana lijiye, agar who hamare customs ke khilaaf hoga toh sweekar nahi hoga (No matter what the law is, if it is not in accordance with their customs then they will certainly not accept it)," District Magistrate, Ajmer, Naveen Mahajan says.

Barely a few kilometers away, another victim of child marriage is now living a nightmare. Two days ago, two strangers from Gujarat came to take 19-year-old Sangeeta away. One introduced himself as her husband and the other, her mother-in-law.

"I don't know what marriage means. I was just five-six years old when I got married. I'm now nineteen. When we told our caste elders that I didn't want to go, they insisted on sending me with them," Sangeeta says.

Child marriages are common in many parts of Rajasthan, especially on days of religious significance like Akha Teej and Dev Uthni Ekadashi.

In fact, child marriage continues to be a reality for about 50 per cent of the girls in the villages of Kota, Dungarpur, Jhalawar and Barmer, but the situation is particularly bad just two and a half hours from Jaipur in Ajmer, where a similar percentage of girls get married even before they turn ten.

Social activists believe child marriages go on uninterrupted because of a lack of political will.

"Politicians lack the will to check child marriages to guard their votes from various communities in which the practice is still followed," social activist Lalita Dave says.