A 16-year-old schoolgirl in Hyderabad has been served a legal notice reminding her of her “conjugal duties”. She received the notice after she returned home following an unsuccessful marriage in which she was forced to marry a man just double her age.
However, the local police have said that they cannot take any action against the boy’s family unless a valid complaint is filed as according to them, child marriage is “not automatically illegal.”
The school girl was preparing herself to take her standard-X exams in the month of February last year when her family forced her to marry a cousin who was 20-years older to her. She went through a family pressure when her parents told her that her aunt is ill and want to see her son getting married.
Before she could understand the matter or do something, she was married to her cousin.
She took her exams as it was the condition put by her to get marry. After the exams were over, she moved with her husband where she was physically and sexually abused, almost daily.
According to an NDTV report, The situations became so unbearable for the girl that she finally decided to return home. Her parents also welcomed their only daughter home and asked her husband to give one lakh rupees dowry and gold back given to them at the time of marriage.
In return, the girl received a legal notice for not performing her “conjugal duties” properly and asked to resume sex with her husband.
The girl approached an activist from certain government-run social action group named Anuradha. She tried to solve the dispute between both the parties by calling a panchayat including village elders. But the husband didn’t accept to give in.
Anuradha said,”The husband was accompanied by two lawyers and said he would pay the lawyers instead of returning the amount to the girl’s family.”
Anuradha also asserted that the priest who performed the marriage rituals should have known the ages of the bride and groom. The panchayat record should have the girl’s age mentioned in it. They made the girl a “sacrificial lamb”.
Child Rights Commission member Achyutha Rao said that it was horrific that a 16-year-old girl has been served a legal notice on her sexual duties. He said,”The accused is still free and this girl has to bear all these. We are going to file a criminal case against both the lawyers.”
