The Hindu : Opinion / Editorials : A shocking absence of outrage

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 20, 2005

Opinion

Opinion - Editorials

A shocking absence of outrage

The gruesome attack on a woman engaged in a campaign against child marriage in Madhya Pradesh is a reminder that despite claims to being on the threshold of developed nation status, India has not been free from the worst forms of social backwardness and obscurantism. As if the incident was not shocking enough, the initial reaction of the State Government was scandalous. Instead of condemning the assault on Shakuntala Verma, a child welfare worker of the State Government, Chief Minister Babulal Gaur threw up his hands and asserted that it was not possible to stop child marriages. Ms. Verma was attacked by a sword-wielding man who barged into her home and tried to chop her hands off. After initially trying to pin the motive for the attack on personal enmity, the Madhya Pradesh Government belatedly admitted that it was indeed linked to the social worker's attempts to prevent a child marriage in a village in Dhar district. One person has been arrested but this has come following street protests in Bihar, anger in Parliament, and a Supreme Court notice to the State Government on a petition on behalf of the injured woman. Aside from seeking compensation, the petition demands the arrest of those behind the attack, and the prosecution of all officials concerned, including the Chief Minister, for a negligent attitude towards child marriages. The official attitude bears the hallmark of a `soft state' bordering on collusion with social reaction and law breaking.

Every year, in the six States of Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Jharkhand, on a particular day of the Hindu calendar known in north India as akha teej and in the south as akshaya tritiya, thousands of children are married. This, in blatant violation of the 1929 Child Marriages Restraint Act (CMRA) under which no girl under the age of 18 or boy under 21 can wed. This year too, despite a directive from the National Human Rights Commission to the governments concerned to take all measures to prevent child marriages, many instances have been reported. According to a 2001 UNICEF study, the number of prosecutions under the CMRA did not exceed 89 in any year. Admittedly, the law as it stands is weak. Child marriage is not a cognisable offence; carrying out arrests of offenders is difficult; and most important, the marriage itself remains valid. The Prevention of Child Marriages Bill introduced in the Rajya Sabha in December 2004 is more comprehensive and has some teeth. It seeks to empower courts to "stay" child marriages and provides for declaring such marriages void (although only on the basis of a complaint by the child). If the Government is at all serious about stamping out the outrageous practice, officials responsible for enforcing the law must be made accountable for every case of violation. In the long term, there is no solution other than making registration of marriages compulsory.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Opinion

News Update

Stories in this Section

A shocking absence of outrage

A fair deal for credit card users

Governance reform for India's forests

Gender equality still a distant dream

The new job market — in the sky