Brides call 181, put shaadi on hold

Ahmedabad: When, in response to a call for help from an underage bride a team of Abhyam 181 counsellors reached the marriage venue on April 27, they found the preparations going on in full swing and only moments left for the groom's party to arrive. The merry situation at the venue in a village near Shertha in Aravalli soon turned to awkward and then became tense.
"After vehement opposition and denial, the parents finally accepted that their daughter was still eight months short of the minimum age for marriage.They said the girl had a history of elopement, and thus when they found a good groom, they wanted to hasten things.They then requested us not to intervene," recounted the counsellor. The Abhayam team, however, refused to budge and the marriage was finally called off with the girl being sent to her aunt in a nearby village.
With that case, in April 2016, the 181 helpline recorded calls in 22 cases to save underage brides from imminent marriages the highest since the helpline started in 2014. To put it in perspective, the year 2015 had a total of 41 such cases, but this year, already in the first four months, 67 cases have been registered seeking prevention of child marriages.
Calls for help from underage brides have gone up significantly , showing greater awareness and increasing faith in the system, said officials. They added that April is an auspicious month for weddings for a number of communities and this is why the figures reported in April are higher than in many other months.
Jashvant Prajapati, COO of EMRI Gujarat, said that by providing an easy way to report cases the helpline has been able to contribute constructively in curbing of child marriages.
Helpline officials said that while the majority of cases come from tribal districts and from communities where child marriages are still rampant, child marriage instances are also reported often from urban areas, including cities like Ahmedabad.
Rather than resorting to police action as the first alternative, 181 counsellors try to convince parents of the girl about health and other implications to prevent child marriages. Police are called in only when parents refuse to change their stance in spite of requests. According to the state police, around 15 to 20 cases require police intervention every year to prevent child marriages from taking place.
Often families try to mislead
It is also difficult to verify underage brides when the family tries to mislead counsellors. Binal Patel, a Childline 1098 coordinator for Ahmedabad, said that this year they had come across a case where they had received a call from a 16-year-old girl who was being forced in to marriage. However, when the team reached the spot, they encountered a girl who was visibly older. “It later turned out that the bride's elder sister had put on the bridal costume to mislead the helpline counsellors and the police,“ she said. Patel said Childline 1098 has so far stopped four child marriages.
Social pressure on educated girls
Gaurang Jani, city-based sociologist, said that child marriages should be seen in their social contexts and from a societal perspective. "With girls getting more education and work opportunities today, several communities are finding it difficult to match their pace with the social change. Parents fear about loss of face over girls getting married without their consent, or their inability to find a suitable groom for a highly educated girl. So, they try to arrange a match as soon as possible. For almost the same reasons, we see attempts to ban mobile phones in a few areas," said Jani.
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