Child marriage victims fighting old customs, govt apathy

Santa Devi, now 20 years old, broke down when a family court pronounced annulment of her child marriage here today.
With tears rolling down her cheeks, Santa said she felt relieved with the order and can pursue graduation now.
"I want to continue with my graduation now and look forward to take a career as a teacher," said Santa.
Like Santa, there are thousands of girls in this desert state who are still being forced into child marriage, a custom from bygone era.
Belonging to Rohichan Kalan village in Luni tehsil of Jodhpur, Santa, was married off to 9-year-old Sanwlaram at the age of 11 months in a 'mausar' ceremony, which is held after a death of some relative in rural areas.

"But when Santa learnt about it, she resisted and convinced her parents to walk out of the marriage," said Kriti Bharti of Sarthi Trust, who Santa approached for annulment of her marriage.

Santa's decision irked members of caste panchayat of her village, who slapped a fine of whopping Rs 16 lakh on her and threatened to ostracise the family from the community.
"First we tried to talk to her husband, Sanwal Ram, and her in-laws expecting to file annulment with their consent.
"But they remained adamant, so we moved the court for annulment on May 13 this year making them to come to the court," Kriti said.

"But in the process of annulment proceeding, those who were against gradually turned supportive or indifferent and in a way helped us achieve our objective smoothly," said Kriti, who has 29 marriage annulments to her credit since 2012.
Expressing disappointment over the apathy of the system in supporting the cause, Kriti said that right from the threat to the family of Santa, the role of the police was lethargic biased.
"We had to literally crack hard nuts to make the police register the case against the members of panchayat by name," alleged Kriti.