[nukkad] [Fwd: [Batunimurid] India tackles CHILD MARRIAGES]

[=?UTF-8?B?4KSF4KSu4KWA4KSwIE1hY2t3YW5p?= <>]

Hasan Essa wrote:
> from the May 24, 2006 edition - 
> http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0524/p06s02-wosc.html
>
>
>     India tackles child marriages
>
> *New legal efforts try to curb a practice rooted in the daily 
> realities of the poor.*
> *By Anuj Chopra* | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
> *PUNE, INDIA* - Shanta was only 13 when her parents forced her to 
> leave school and married her to a man twice her age. At 15, while most 
> of her peers were in school, she gave birth. Now 17 and emaciated, 
> Shanta is back in her parent's home after her marriage collapsed: Her 
> husband is in prison for a serious crime that Shanta didn't want to 
> reveal, just as she didn't want to reveal her real name.
> "I didn't even understand what marriage meant at 13," she says, her 
> eyes brimming with tears, as her 2-year-old lolls in the background. 
> Shanta hadn't even seen her husband, let alone known him, before she 
> tied the nuptial knot.
> More than one-third of all brides in India are below the age of 18, an 
> estimate that activists say could be low, as many marriages - both 
> child and adult - seldom get registered. A Supreme Court decision in 
> February now compels couples to register. Nevertheless, this month, on 
> Akshaya Tritiya, an auspicious festival for Hindus, child marriages 
> were reported to have been solemnized in parts of the country, under 
> the nose of police and despite a 1929 law that sets the legal age of 
> marriage at 18 for girls and 21 for boys.
> Child-welfare activists are pushing for tougher legislation and 
> enforcement. But it's an uphill battle in a nation where much of the 
> population is rural or poor, and the societal values are shaped by 
> sparse resources, limited opportunities for women, and family 
> traditions that are slower to change than those in India's more 
> cosmopolitan urban centers.
> "It has been a well-accepted social norm for centuries," says Anjali 
> Bapat, a volunteer working with Swadhar, a nongovernmental 
> organization dealing with underprivileged children and women in Pune. 
> The city is known more for its high-tech parks, malls, and 
> multiplexes, but it also is home to Shanta and other residents of the 
> Chaitraban slum.
> Here, as in rural parts of India barely touched by the industrial 
> revolution let alone the information age, many Indians see early 
> marriage as in the best interest of young girls. Ms. Bapat explains 
> that, in their view, marriage ensures security - financial and social 
> - for girls. Also, parents prefer to marry girls off early - one of 
> the biggest social obligations if they have a daughter - before the 
> costs of marriage, including dowry, surpass their means.
> *A matter of honor and money*
> Nanda Lodha, an elderly woman, got married even before she hit 
> puberty. She says she grew up in a feudal society where the presence 
> of young unmarried girls is a potential invitation for social disaster.
> "A girl's virginity is prized and associated with family honor," she 
> says. "Getting girls married early, then and even now in most cases, 
> is a way to protect daughters from rape or the lure of premarital sex. 
> Parents prefer to get them married early before their family honor is 
> breached."
> Besides such social pressures, financial compulsions, too, were a big 
> reason for early marriages, she says. "Early marriage meant an 
> additional earning member. Besides household chores, I needed to work 
> in the fields with my husband, to supplement the household income."
> *Weddings in out-of-the-way places*
> These days, to evade the eye of activists or the police in urban 
> India, a common modus operandi is to solemnize weddings in villages 
> where the presence of the law is less conspicuous. Kamala Sargare, a 
> diminutive 12-year-old in Chaitraban, recently got engaged to a man 
> old enough to be her father, locals say. Her wedding, they say, is 
> scheduled in a neighboring village next month.
> The young girl returned blank looks when asked what marriage means. 
> Her mother, noticing the line of questions was veering toward early 
> marriage, hollered and pulled Kamala in, shutting the door firmly 
> behind her.
> "There are [loopholes] in the present law," says Jaya Sagade, a legal 
> expert on the issue and the author of a book called "Child Marriage in 
> India: Socio-legal and Human Rights Dimensions." "This act can only 
> prevent child marriages. Once the ceremony is conducted, it can't hold 
> it to be void. So even the police cannot do much."
> *Tougher approach proposed*
> In December 2004, a parliamentary committee led by Sudarsana 
> Natchiappan tabled a report recommending changes to the current law. 
> These include: voiding child marriages and making the crime punishable 
> with up to two years in prison - up from the current three months.
> If these changes are adopted, the question remains - as with the 
> recent Supreme Court decision on marriage registration - whether 
> enforcement will happen.
> Mr. Natchiappan says further consultations with NGOs and child rights 
> activists were needed to make the act stronger, causing some delay. He 
> says the bill might be passed within this year.
> Activists say the absence of an effective law makes it hard to change 
> habits and structures ingrained in Indian society, particularly in 
> rural areas. Last May, villagers in an obscure part of the central 
> Indian state of Madhya Pradesh fatally attacked a child welfare 
> activist trying to stop child marriages. The villagers saw her as 
> interfering with their ancient traditions.
> To help girls break free from the shackles of well-established social 
> norms, Bapat and others point to the need for better education 
> opportunities. Currently, some girls from poor backgrounds are forced 
> to drop out after they hit puberty for reasons as petty as the schools 
> having no bathrooms.
> What's heartening, however, is that more and more resistance to child 
> marriages is coming from children themselves.
> Ragini Dimle, an 18-year-old training to be a beautician at a school 
> run by Swadhar, was pressured to marry a man, chosen by her 
> brother-in-law, when she was just 14.
> "I simply refused," she says, parsing her remarks with the precision 
> of a girl forced to become too wise, too soon. "'I want to study and 
> stand on my own feet first,' I told my parents firmly."
> Full HTML version of this story which may include photos, graphics, 
> and related links <http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0524/p06s02-wosc.html>
>
>
> Hasni Essa
> Peace & Pluralism
>
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-------- Original Message --------
Subject:        [Batunimurid] India tackles child marriages
Date:   Tue, 23 May 2006 18:23:35 -0700 (PDT)
From:   Hasan Essa 
Reply-To:       Batunimurid@yahoogroups.com
To:     pakistanpost@yahoogroups.com, PakistanForum@yahoogroups.com, 
Writers_Forum@yahoogroups.com, 
Multiculturalism-PluralismGroup@yahoogroups.com, 
batunimurid@yahoogroups.com, ismailisoul@yahoogroups.com, 
ismailiworld@yahoogroups.com, ismaili_groups@yahoogroups.com



from the May 24, 2006 edition - 
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0524/p06s02-wosc.html


    India tackles child marriages

*New legal efforts try to curb a practice rooted in the daily realities 
of the poor.*
*By Anuj Chopra* | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
*PUNE, INDIA* - Shanta was only 13 when her parents forced her to leave 
school and married her to a man twice her age. At 15, while most of her 
peers were in school, she gave birth. Now 17 and emaciated, Shanta is 
back in her parent's home after her marriage collapsed: Her husband is 
in prison for a serious crime that Shanta didn't want to reveal, just as 
she didn't want to reveal her real name.
"I didn't even understand what marriage meant at 13," she says, her eyes 
brimming with tears, as her 2-year-old lolls in the background. Shanta 
hadn't even seen her husband, let alone known him, before she tied the 
nuptial knot.
More than one-third of all brides in India are below the age of 18, an 
estimate that activists say could be low, as many marriages - both child 
and adult - seldom get registered. A Supreme Court decision in February 
now compels couples to register. Nevertheless, this month, on Akshaya 
Tritiya, an auspicious festival for Hindus, child marriages were 
reported to have been solemnized in parts of the country, under the nose 
of police and despite a 1929 law that sets the legal age of marriage at 
18 for girls and 21 for boys.
Child-welfare activists are pushing for tougher legislation and 
enforcement. But it's an uphill battle in a nation where much of the 
population is rural or poor, and the societal values are shaped by 
sparse resources, limited opportunities for women, and family traditions 
that are slower to change than those in India's more cosmopolitan urban 
centers.
"It has been a well-accepted social norm for centuries," says Anjali 
Bapat, a volunteer working with Swadhar, a nongovernmental organization 
dealing with underprivileged children and women in Pune. The city is 
known more for its high-tech parks, malls, and multiplexes, but it also 
is home to Shanta and other residents of the Chaitraban slum.
Here, as in rural parts of India barely touched by the industrial 
revolution let alone the information age, many Indians see early 
marriage as in the best interest of young girls. Ms. Bapat explains 
that, in their view, marriage ensures security - financial and social - 
for girls. Also, parents prefer to marry girls off early - one of the 
biggest social obligations if they have a daughter - before the costs of 
marriage, including dowry, surpass their means.
*A matter of honor and money*
Nanda Lodha, an elderly woman, got married even before she hit puberty. 
She says she grew up in a feudal society where the presence of young 
unmarried girls is a potential invitation for social disaster.
"A girl's virginity is prized and associated with family honor," she 
says. "Getting girls married early, then and even now in most cases, is 
a way to protect daughters from rape or the lure of premarital sex. 
Parents prefer to get them married early before their family honor is 
breached."
Besides such social pressures, financial compulsions, too, were a big 
reason for early marriages, she says. "Early marriage meant an 
additional earning member. Besides household chores, I needed to work in 
the fields with my husband, to supplement the household income."
*Weddings in out-of-the-way places*
These days, to evade the eye of activists or the police in urban India, 
a common modus operandi is to solemnize weddings in villages where the 
presence of the law is less conspicuous. Kamala Sargare, a diminutive 
12-year-old in Chaitraban, recently got engaged to a man old enough to 
be her father, locals say. Her wedding, they say, is scheduled in a 
neighboring village next month.
The young girl returned blank looks when asked what marriage means. Her 
mother, noticing the line of questions was veering toward early 
marriage, hollered and pulled Kamala in, shutting the door firmly behind 
her.
"There are [loopholes] in the present law," says Jaya Sagade, a legal 
expert on the issue and the author of a book called "Child Marriage in 
India: Socio-legal and Human Rights Dimensions." "This act can only 
prevent child marriages. Once the ceremony is conducted, it can't hold 
it to be void. So even the police cannot do much."
*Tougher approach proposed*
In December 2004, a parliamentary committee led by Sudarsana Natchiappan 
tabled a report recommending changes to the current law. These include: 
voiding child marriages and making the crime punishable with up to two 
years in prison - up from the current three months.
If these changes are adopted, the question remains - as with the recent 
Supreme Court decision on marriage registration - whether enforcement 
will happen.
Mr. Natchiappan says further consultations with NGOs and child rights 
activists were needed to make the act stronger, causing some delay. He 
says the bill might be passed within this year.
Activists say the absence of an effective law makes it hard to change 
habits and structures ingrained in Indian society, particularly in rural 
areas. Last May, villagers in an obscure part of the central Indian 
state of Madhya Pradesh fatally attacked a child welfare activist trying 
to stop child marriages. The villagers saw her as interfering with their 
ancient traditions.
To help girls break free from the shackles of well-established social 
norms, Bapat and others point to the need for better education 
opportunities. Currently, some girls from poor backgrounds are forced to 
drop out after they hit puberty for reasons as petty as the schools 
having no bathrooms.
What's heartening, however, is that more and more resistance to child 
marriages is coming from children themselves.
Ragini Dimle, an 18-year-old training to be a beautician at a school run 
by Swadhar, was pressured to marry a man, chosen by her brother-in-law, 
when she was just 14.
"I simply refused," she says, parsing her remarks with the precision of 
a girl forced to become too wise, too soon. "'I want to study and stand 
on my own feet first,' I told my parents firmly."
Full HTML version of this story which may include photos, graphics, and 
related links <http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0524/p06s02-wosc.html>


Hasni Essa
Peace & Pluralism


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