Born of long-standing traditions of patriarchy and sustained by ignorance, the evil practice of child marriage continues to ravage our society.
In yet another incident of child marriage, a 16-year-old girl from Burari locality in North Delhi was allegedly forcibly married off to a 27-year-old man in Sonepat district of Haryana in the night on Sunday amid lockdown restrictions.
The girl was rescued with the intervention of an NGO named Bachpan Bachao Andolan, who informed the state police.
The incident took place on Sunday night when people of Hindu faith celebrate Akshaya Tritiya, an annual spring time festival.
It is regarded as an auspicious occasion by Hindus and people purchase gold and other commodities for ‘unending prosperity’.
According to a statement of the NGO, marrying off underage girls to older men on this day has been a long-standing tradition in the region.
While speaking to the Hindustan Times, Manish Sharma, senior manager of the NGO’s access to the justice department in Delhi, said that their intervention was driven by a tip-off.
On April 25, he received a WhatsApp text from an unknown number that a Class 10th student was being forcefully taken to Haryana by her father for marrying her off to an older man.
He added that the text also includes the mobile number of concerned girl’s father.
Sharma passed on the information to his NGO’s functionary in Haryana who alerted the state police and other authorities. The NGO also stated that the anti-human trafficking unit of Haryana also took cognizance of the incident as informed the police for rescuing the minor.
The police swung into action and the phone of the concerned girl’s father was placed on surveillance on April 26 by the officers of the district’s cyber crime unit.
The officers located it to Gohana village in Sonepat district. The police discovered that the minor was forcibly married to a 27-year-old man in the night on Akshaya Tritya.
Subsequently, the girl rescued by the police and was produced before the local Child Welfare Committee (CWC). As per the details furnished by the minor, seven people including her father were arrested.
The accused have been booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Child Marriage (Prohibition) Act, and the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015. The NGO stated that the declaration of nullity of the minor’s marriage shall be made by the court.
