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Thursday, May 12, 2005

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Social worker's arms chopped off

Staff Correspondent

`Punished' for trying to prevent child marriage on Akha Teej

BHOPAL: Shakuntla Verma, an Anganwadi supervisor in Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh was brutally attacked and wounded by a villager on Tuesday. The attack is apparently a direct fall out of her recent attempts to convince and stop the villager from marrying off his minor daughters.

The incident took place at Dhangarh village in Dhar district. According to information received here, the Sub Divisional Magistrate, acting on a complaint filed by one Gopal, younger brother of the accused, had asked Ms. Verma to contact the accused and dissuade him from getting his minor daughters married on Akshaya Tritiya on Wednesday, considered an auspicious day for child marriage.

On Tuesday, the accused visited her house and gave her a piece of paper with an address written on it. While she was reading it, he slashed both her arms with a sharp edged weapon and fled. She was immediately rushed to Gokuldas hospital in Indore where she underwent a marathon operation last night by renowned cardio-vascular surgeon, Anil Garg. In the past 24 hours, she has been given about a dozen bottles of blood and the team of doctors attending on her was trying its best to save her arms.

The State Minister for Women and Child Development, Archana Chitnis rushed to Indore on Wednesday. When contacted, the Secretary and Commissioner, State Women and Child Development Department, S.R. Mohanty, told The Hindu that what happened at Dhangarh village on Tuesday should be treated as a criminal act committed by a criminal and no leniency would be shown. The police would do its job and the culprit punished, he said adding that child marriage is going on for centuries and this evil has some degree of social mandate. Legislations against child marriag have existed for 76 years but it is now being realized that only societal action can fight this problem, he added.

Mr. Mohanty further said: "Since we have failed to achieve reasonable success in combating the menace of child marriages, the Madhya Pradesh Government had adopted the policy of handling the issue on the same lines as the pulse polio campaign. The strategy was to involve the society and urge everybody from the Chief Minister down to the Panchayat and anganwadi workers to fan out among the people and urge them to give up child marriages."

Mr. Mohanty said the State has about one lakh anganwadi workers who were specially mobilised to work against child marriages as they would always be the first to know of any child marriage taking place in their areas, he pointed out. In large parts of Madhya Pradesh, where mass marriages are common among communities like the Malis and Ahirwars, child mass marriages are performed on Akha Teej. The Bhopal District Collector, Sanjay Shukla, told The Hindu on Wednesday afternoon that the Chief Secretary, Vijay Singh, had earlier written to the District Collectors asking them to make concerted efforts to combat child marriages.

PTI adds: Meanwhile, talking to reporters after visiting Ms. Verma in Indore, Divisional Commissioner, Ashok Das and Dhar Collector, D.P. Ahuja, said the police have launched a hunt to nab the culprit.

Mr. Ahuja said Ms. Verma had gone to the village to enquire about proposed child marriages and her queries may have annoyed the villagers, leading to the attack.

The Government has assured all possible medical help to the victim and has announced an aid of Rs 3 lakh for her treatment, he added.

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