Bride 12, groom 17: Haryana families tied in legal knots after wedding off minors

She dropped out of Class VI a week back to become a child bride at 12 years. Her marriage was solemnised late last night by her father, a migrant from Bihar living in Kaithal’s Dhand village for the past 15 years and working as a labourer to make ends meet.

She was married to a 17-year-old boy (his father claims he is a minor and no age proof is available yet) from Kurukshetra because he was “a match the family could not refuse”.

Fifteen hours later, an FIR has been registered under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, against the two fathers — of the boy and the girl — who fixed the marriage of the minors which was organised at Dhand under the cover of the night.

The two men have been booked for performing, abetting and solemnising a child marriage under Section 9, 10 and 11 of the Act and the marriage has become null and void in keeping with the provisions of the Act.

The girl, back from her in-laws’ home in Kurukshetra, has been sent to the one-stop centre — intended to support women — where she will stay for the next few days. The Child Welfare Committee began her counselling in the evening today. The hunt for the priest who solemnised the “illegal” marriage is underway.

Speaking to The Tribune, the girl said she agreed to drop out of school and get married after her parents assured her that she would be allowed to continue her studies at her in-laws’ house as well. “Everything had been finalised with my in-laws. They had committed to let me continue with my studies. I said yes to the marriage only after that and left school last week. Today afternoon, my uncle came to take me back home,” she stated, adding that she got married last evening and left for her in-laws’ house with the ‘baraat’ after the marriage.

The father, narrating his tale of woes, explained that he had decided to marry off his daughter since he was the sole breadwinner and could not afford to feed so many mouths. “I have four daughters and a son who is married. I earn only about Rs 5,000 which is proving to inadequate to run the house despite the free ration provided by the government. I married off the eldest daughter in Bihar a year ago. Yesterday, my second daughter got engaged. It wasn’t a marriage ceremony,” he insisted, admitting that a priest performed the ‘puja’ after which the boy’s family left with the bride for Kurukshetra.

“The boy is an engine mechanic. It was a good match recommended by my sister’s in-laws. We were excited about it,” he added, contradicting himself by stating that he did not intend marrying off his second daughter for another two years but unable to explain why she was sent with the “groom” after an engagement.

The Tribune, on receiving a tip-off of a child marriage in Dhand late last night (around 10.45 pm) had informed the Additional Chief Secretary, Women and Child Development, Sudhir Rajpal, and Kaithal Superintendent of Police, Astha Modi, who swung into action immediately. The police reached the village in no time and the family, with reluctance, handed over “the bride and groom” to them.

Both the officers closely monitored the developments till past midnight until after the “groom” was sent to a child care institution and the “bride” was sent to the one-stop centre. However, by morning, following another tip-off from the village, it became clear that the girl’s family had lied about the bride and groom who had, in fact, left for Kurukshetra. In the night, the family had handed the eldest daughter, also a minor, and her husband to the police team.

Then, Rajpal and Modi, once again, stepped in to mobilise their teams to get cracking. Finally, the police team led by DSP Gurvinder Singh and Protection Officer Suneeta, asked a relative to bring back the bride and groom from Kurukshetra around 2 pm today. The groom has been handed over to his family. On the complaint by the Protection Officer, a case was registered against the father of the boy and the father of the girl for violating the law.

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