Despite being one of the socially progressive states of India, child marriage is one of the key issues rural West Bengal is still grappling with. As a result, the evil practice continues. But of late there are isolated stories of young girls plucking up courage to resist the menace. India Blooms correspondent Sreya Basu reports
Rehana Baidhya is 12 but she and her friends are profiles in courage. Last month one day the girl told her schoolmates that she would be married off in the evening. Friends of Rehana even at this tender age understood the seriousness and stalled the marriage with the help of police.
These are not snippets of life from the ongoing Indian soap Balika Badhu (Child Bride) that projects the pathos of child brides, but a real-life incident occurring only a few hours' distance from Kolkata, the state capital.
STREE: A weekly women's magazine on Sify.com
Rehana Baidhya was staying for a few days at her maternal uncle's house at Ramchandrakhali in Basanti village of West Bengal's South 24 Parganas. One day in May, while playing with her classmates of Tetulberia High School, she told the girls that her uncle and aunt have arranged her wedding in the evening.
Baidhya's friends decided to inform the Basanti police station. They didn't have enough experience to do so themselves and so took the help of one of their mothers. The gang of girls finally prevented the marriage. Police picked up Rehana Baidhya from the middle of her wedding ceremony and handed her over to her parents at Anthaerobanki village.
The incident followed on the heels of the now famous Rekha Kalindi episode. Rekha is a 12-year-old bidi roller from a village in Purulia district, a district with one of the lowest female literacy rate in the country. But Rekha is now a profile in courage, having done what the government has been trying to do for years -- she stopped a child marriage. Well, the girl is none other than Rekha herself.
Rekha Kalindi has become a household name in her district for refusing to get married in November last year.
"Since Rekha's revolt, there's been no child marriage in the village," said Prosenjit Kundu, assistant labour commissioner, Purulia, West Bengal government. "Now all girls want to be like her and some others, like Afsana Khatoon (13) from a neighbouring village, also said a firm no."
Rekha on the face of it seems an unlikely hero. The frail girl lives in a one-room dwelling with seven others in Bararola village in the Jhalda-2 block of West Bengal's Purulia district. Her home has no electricity, no running water and no sanitary toilet.
She's never watched a film -- even the names of celluloid idols like Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan draw a blank. She never owned a toy. "We don't play. Little children in nursery play," said the 12-year-old, who looks no older than 7.
She and her friends spend their evenings collecting firewood and tendu leaves in the forest to sell at the weekly market in Kotshila town, seven kilometres away.
Rekha belongs to the Kalindi tribe, a scheduled tribe in which girls are traditionally married at the age of 12.
"My sister Jyotsna, now 15, got married at 12 and has already had four dead babies. She now lives with her second husband because the first one left her. Still, my parents wanted me to also get married but I said no, I want to study. They finally agreed," said Rekha.
Though her father Jagdish Kalindi stopped her food, water and soap for some days, she stood firm and he finally came around. "We told our teacher that Rekha wanted to study and together we made her father agree. We will all marry after turning 18," said her friend, classmate and neighbour Budhamani Kalindi (12).
Forty per cent of the world's child marriages take place in India, leading to 78,000 women dying at childbirth each year.
The third child among three brothers and three sisters, Rekha started helping her family earn a living by rolling bidis from the age of 5. "We worked at home to help Baba (father) and were paid Rs 30 per 1,000 sticks rolled," she said. That was before 2006, the year her village got a National Child Labour Project (NCLP) school to give basic education to former child labourers.
"Under the NCLP project, all students in its 90 schools get a monthly stipend of Rs 100 and, in partnership with UNICEF's Child Activist Project, information about child rights, early marriage, education, gender equality, etc," said Purulia's Assistant Labour Commissioner Prasenjit Kundu.
But Rehana and Rekha are perhaps small drops in the ocean of hopelessness among rural girls in India. There are several cases of child marriage being practised undercover.
Text: Sreya Basu
Apna Skool for children of migrant labourers
Rehana Baidhya is 12 but she and her friends are profiles in courage. Last month one day the girl told her schoolmates that she would be married off in the evening. Friends of Rehana even at this tender age understood the seriousness and stalled the marriage with the help of police.
These are not snippets of life from the ongoing Indian soap Balika Badhu (Child Bride) that projects the pathos of child brides, but a real-life incident occurring only a few hours' distance from Kolkata, the state capital.
STREE: A weekly women's magazine on Sify.com
Rehana Baidhya was staying for a few days at her maternal uncle's house at Ramchandrakhali in Basanti village of West Bengal's South 24 Parganas. One day in May, while playing with her classmates of Tetulberia High School, she told the girls that her uncle and aunt have arranged her wedding in the evening.
Baidhya's friends decided to inform the Basanti police station. They didn't have enough experience to do so themselves and so took the help of one of their mothers. The gang of girls finally prevented the marriage. Police picked up Rehana Baidhya from the middle of her wedding ceremony and handed her over to her parents at Anthaerobanki village.
The incident followed on the heels of the now famous Rekha Kalindi episode. Rekha is a 12-year-old bidi roller from a village in Purulia district, a district with one of the lowest female literacy rate in the country. But Rekha is now a profile in courage, having done what the government has been trying to do for years -- she stopped a child marriage. Well, the girl is none other than Rekha herself.
Rekha Kalindi has become a household name in her district for refusing to get married in November last year.
"Since Rekha's revolt, there's been no child marriage in the village," said Prosenjit Kundu, assistant labour commissioner, Purulia, West Bengal government. "Now all girls want to be like her and some others, like Afsana Khatoon (13) from a neighbouring village, also said a firm no."
Rekha on the face of it seems an unlikely hero. The frail girl lives in a one-room dwelling with seven others in Bararola village in the Jhalda-2 block of West Bengal's Purulia district. Her home has no electricity, no running water and no sanitary toilet.
She's never watched a film -- even the names of celluloid idols like Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan draw a blank. She never owned a toy. "We don't play. Little children in nursery play," said the 12-year-old, who looks no older than 7.
She and her friends spend their evenings collecting firewood and tendu leaves in the forest to sell at the weekly market in Kotshila town, seven kilometres away.
Rekha belongs to the Kalindi tribe, a scheduled tribe in which girls are traditionally married at the age of 12.
"My sister Jyotsna, now 15, got married at 12 and has already had four dead babies. She now lives with her second husband because the first one left her. Still, my parents wanted me to also get married but I said no, I want to study. They finally agreed," said Rekha.
Though her father Jagdish Kalindi stopped her food, water and soap for some days, she stood firm and he finally came around. "We told our teacher that Rekha wanted to study and together we made her father agree. We will all marry after turning 18," said her friend, classmate and neighbour Budhamani Kalindi (12).
Forty per cent of the world's child marriages take place in India, leading to 78,000 women dying at childbirth each year.
The third child among three brothers and three sisters, Rekha started helping her family earn a living by rolling bidis from the age of 5. "We worked at home to help Baba (father) and were paid Rs 30 per 1,000 sticks rolled," she said. That was before 2006, the year her village got a National Child Labour Project (NCLP) school to give basic education to former child labourers.
"Under the NCLP project, all students in its 90 schools get a monthly stipend of Rs 100 and, in partnership with UNICEF's Child Activist Project, information about child rights, early marriage, education, gender equality, etc," said Purulia's Assistant Labour Commissioner Prasenjit Kundu.
But Rehana and Rekha are perhaps small drops in the ocean of hopelessness among rural girls in India. There are several cases of child marriage being practised undercover.
Text: Sreya Basu
Apna Skool for children of migrant labourers
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