Minor girl from Jharkhand's Gumla district stops marriage

GUMLA: Another minor girl from rural Jharkhand on Tuesday, showed her spunk to stop child marriage against the wishes of her parents.
Mamta Kumari (14) from Hapamuni village in Gumla, took the help of the district legal service authority (DLSA) to realize her dream of pursuing education. Police said the Class IX students of Ghaghra High School wrote a letter to the DLSA through one of her teachers and expressed her desire to study further and not get married as her parents are planning.The DLSA secretary shot it to the SP Gumla who asked Ghaghra police to take action.
The police reached the village and brought the girl before the child welfare committee (CWC) Gumla on Tuesday.
"Now she is under the protection of the CWC as it is a sensitive matter. Police have been asked to produce her parents before the CWC on Wednesday. We have recorded her statement. She said she did not want to marry because she has to pursue her studies," said CWC chairperson Tagren Panna.
DLSA had organized a legal awareness camp and a mobile Lok Adalat Van also visited Ghaghra High School. Mamta came to know about the Child Marriage Prohibition Act 2006 and other legal matters from the mobile legal awareness drive.
"A representation written by the girl herself reached the DLSA through a para legal volunteer. We got it processed and sent to the SP Gumla," said DLSA secretary Yashwant Prakash.
In May 2015, 17-year-old Dolly Kumari created ripples after she approached chief minister Raghubar Das to stop her marriage. Duli Hembrom, a 13-year-old from Jamshedpur became an inspiration for many rural girls in the state in April last year after she stood against her parents and chose education over marriage.