IG
05-24-2009, 03:08 AM
Child brides find haven in city
24 May 2009, 0440 hrs IST, Seethalakshmi S , TNN
BANGALORE: Kasturi is expecting her second child next month. Nothing surprising until you find she is only 16 years old. In a thatched-roof hut,this girl is feeding her first born on a sultry Friday afternoon. All this not in some remote village but in the heart of one of India’s most globalized cities.
Mariamma is even younger. This 12-year-old girl was married at 11 and left Gulbarga to live with her carpenter husband in Bangalore. “I live here with my in-laws and other relatives. We’re a family of nine who came from Yadgir last year. I also go out and work to feed the family. Once a year, I get to meet my parents,’’ she told STOI.
Child marriage seems to be an accepted norm in the ‘Gulbarga’ colony in Nagavarapalya, C V Raman Nagar, which teems with girls of her age who are married in their villages and sent to Bangalore. Every resident of this colony of 300 houses is from Gulbarga. “Many came here after our parents got us married. My parents felt it’s safer for me to be married before I go to another city and work,’’ said Durga, 15.
Ten-year-old girls married to men twice their age, girls saddled with four children before they’re even 25 and women in their thirties with sons in their twenties are a common sight in this settlement. Activists working against child marriage say Bangalore is increasingly becoming a safe haven for children married early.
“Though the Karnataka Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006 has been enacted, girls as young as nine and ten are married in mass marriages in districts. In an event where there are 200 couples, at least 10 girls are married. In search of work and to escape a crackdown by the government, parents pack off these children to cities,’’ said a Unicef representative.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Child-brides-find-haven-in-city/articleshow/4570707.cms
24 May 2009, 0440 hrs IST, Seethalakshmi S , TNN
BANGALORE: Kasturi is expecting her second child next month. Nothing surprising until you find she is only 16 years old. In a thatched-roof hut,this girl is feeding her first born on a sultry Friday afternoon. All this not in some remote village but in the heart of one of India’s most globalized cities.
Mariamma is even younger. This 12-year-old girl was married at 11 and left Gulbarga to live with her carpenter husband in Bangalore. “I live here with my in-laws and other relatives. We’re a family of nine who came from Yadgir last year. I also go out and work to feed the family. Once a year, I get to meet my parents,’’ she told STOI.
Child marriage seems to be an accepted norm in the ‘Gulbarga’ colony in Nagavarapalya, C V Raman Nagar, which teems with girls of her age who are married in their villages and sent to Bangalore. Every resident of this colony of 300 houses is from Gulbarga. “Many came here after our parents got us married. My parents felt it’s safer for me to be married before I go to another city and work,’’ said Durga, 15.
Ten-year-old girls married to men twice their age, girls saddled with four children before they’re even 25 and women in their thirties with sons in their twenties are a common sight in this settlement. Activists working against child marriage say Bangalore is increasingly becoming a safe haven for children married early.
“Though the Karnataka Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006 has been enacted, girls as young as nine and ten are married in mass marriages in districts. In an event where there are 200 couples, at least 10 girls are married. In search of work and to escape a crackdown by the government, parents pack off these children to cities,’’ said a Unicef representative.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Child-brides-find-haven-in-city/articleshow/4570707.cms