Happily ever after, no child marriages here

AP village shuns the evil custom 

3 July 2005

Gangireddula Gudem (AP) Tucked away from civilisation, a revolution has  unfolded in this village in Medak district, about 70 kms from Hyderabad.Gangireddula Gudem, a hamlet inhabited by 43 families of a beggar community, has made a brave beginning for the country: this village has stopped its traditional practice of child marriage.The village is inhabited by the nomadic Gangireddula community, a denotified tribe of migrant beggars, and once had the dubious distinction of marrying off babies. Villagers now proudly say the last mass child marriage conducted here was in 2001, when 28 children had tied the knot on ‘Ambayya Jatra’, the community’s main festival.

“Mass child marriages were an annual ritual until that year,” says the village sarpanch Vishwambhara Swamy. At the village primary school, it was a routine sight to walk into a classroom full of girls wearing ‘mangalsutras’.But, this practice followed by the community for centuries stopped, when the community took a collective decision against the trend. Why? “We had seen the health of our girls suffer. Two girls in their teens had died during childbirth. Two underweight new-born babies too had died,’’ says a pale Saiyamma, mother of three, who is against it as she thinks it is “not right’’. “It took innumerable counselling sessions, meetings and health camps. Fear too played an important role in curbing the practice,’’ says M Subhash Chandra of Centre for Action Research and People’s Development (CARPED), an NGO that mobilises people bring an end to child marriages.A collector and a senior local police officer visited the village and put the fear of law among the villagers. “After the mass marriage, the couples were taken by volunteers of CARPED to the collector as evidence of how even babies were being married off,’’ recollects Janapati Narsamma, a village elder. The collector warned his officials and even visited the village himself to ensure the practise was discontinued. “I don’t remember my wedding day as I was in the cradle, but I want my children to remember their marriages,’’ says Bothula, a mother.

Source : Mumbai Mirror 

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