Silent Revolution

Child marriages are common across more than a half a dozen states in India. Girls below the age of 18 married off for various reasons. Some parents says they do it because they are poor, others say tradition.

There is no major government study on the number of child brides in India. The 2001 census figures indicate that there are over 300,000 girls below the age of 15 who are already mothers.

It is illegal to marry girls below the age of 18.

For most of these girls marriage often means the end of their childhood, and the beginning of a life where they are expected to do tough house hold work for over 12 hours a day.

Most don't attend school after they get married and some have to contend with physical and sexual abuse and risky pregnancies.

But a bunch of girls in the Ranga Reddy district are leading a silent revolution. With the help of NGOs, these girls ( some as young as 13) are getting their marriages annulled by the village panchayats and reclaiming their lives.

Most of the 13 girls I met at this School do not get any support from their parents.

" I was told one day that my uncle was getting married and that we were going to his house. But my parents took me to another uncle's house. His son was dressed like a groom and I was told that I was the bride. I ran away. But my parents and other relatives soon caught me. They tied me up and held me down and the rituals were performed." 13 year old Jagamma told me.

"After the rituals were over late at night they untied me and allowed me to go to the toilet. I took my chance and ran away again. This time I ran straight to the police station. I knew my marriage was against the law. At first the policemen did not register a case, but I came back the next day with a lawyer from the NGO's office."

Her parents were arrested and have now disowned her.

" My father said, you go and start living with your husband and don't press charges. He said he would kill himself if I did not do so. I told him to die. I wanted to study and become someone. I did not want to be what my parents were forcing me to be." she adds.

Jagamma wants to be a lawyer.

Her friend at the residential school run by the NGO is 13 year old Venkatamma. Her impoverished mother married her off, because the grooms side offered to pay for the wedding.

" When I went to my husband's house they started beating me up and made me do all the house hold work. When I ran away and went to my mothers house, they threatened my mother. I then came to this school and now do not want to go back. I know that only education can help me. I want to study and become a teacher."

Akshat

Laxmi

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Sajal and Sweety

Injustice

"I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law. "


-Martin Luther King Jr.Civil Rights Leader, USA 1929 - 1968

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The story of Fatima and Sheikh Salary is a story of love, dedication, perseverance, courage, a never say die attitude and finally spectacular success.

It you want to read and view more click here.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/951D9596-498E-4735-9DBC-58AA497596EA.htm

mE at Work

Here are some pictures. Friends who see my work on television sent these to me from far away. Thank you guys...as promised I have posted them here.

A Matang Family Makes Brooms

Shakeel stores Fish with the Cold Drinks

A Vaydu Tribal and Her Children

Surekha Kale and her children from the nomadic Vaydu Tribe in Maharashtra. She told me her children are forced to eat stray cats and other small animals when there is no food.

The Pardi People of Marathwada

The Pardi tribe was classified a "Criminal" tribe by the British Colonial government. They were known as a criminal tribe for decades...after India's independence the tribe was "de-notified."

However even now old biases remain.

The pardi community is looked at with suspicion by the police and the public at large.

" When ever there is a robbery, a murder or any crime we are the first suspects. The police come to our village and harass us. They round up our boys and beat them up. Every week some boy or the other from the village is picked up" says Sunita Pawar a Pardi woman at a Pardi Village near Osmanabad.

There is no primary health center in the village. The closest hospital is 10 kilometers away.

"When ever someone is seriously ill, we have to carry them on foot to the hospital." says another villager.

The hospital has no ambulance and the road to the village is just a dirt track with pot holes and stones.

Government apathy is clear. Most of the villagers have not even been issued voter
I cards.

Most people are poor enough to be classified as "living under the poverty line" but only a few have government issued cards that make them eligible for subsidised rations.

The village has a primary school that operates from two rooms. Children who want to study further have to trek 5 kilometers away to another village.

Many don't even get past primary school. Government teachers appointed to teach here refuse to come to the village. The village is considered "risky".

Young boys in the village say they are forced to take up crime.

" I have studied till class 9. No one wants to give a Pardi a job. We are looked at as criminals. Who would want to hire us?" says Sunil a young resident.

The village is technically electrified, but only handful of households have electricity. A majority can't afford to pay the minimum bill.

As for drinking water, women have to walk to a well some distance from the village. The balance themselves precariously as they pull out bucketfuls of water.

There are reservations in educational institutions and government jobs for the tribe. But very few from the community are able to get the benefit of the affirmative action.

" If I don't have the money to buy books for my child, buy his uniform or even let him to to school what is the use of reservation. If the child is not educated what is the use of quotas in the government job." the village headman asks.