The minor, living in the village of Rangareddy, India, returned from the wedding in May and rejoined school when she broke down in tears in front of a teacher
Police are probing a child marriage after a 13-year-old schoolgirl was allegedly forced to marry a 40-year-old man by her mum.
The minor, living in the village of Rangareddy, India, returned from the wedding in May and rejoined school when she broke down in tears in front of a teacher.
The concerned adult spoke to the girl, who revealed that her mum allegedly forced her into marrying the 40-year-old. The teacher took the child to the police and filed a complaint. It comes after news a nursery teacher drowned her partner’s four-year-old daughter in sickening attack.
In a statement provided to police, the schoolgirl said her dad passed away a few years ago, and her mum, the main breadwinner, asked their house owner to find a match for her.
The house owner introduced a 40-year-old man to the girl, and the marriage was performed in front of several people, despite the 13-year-old objecting.
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Nandigama police registered the case under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act. The man has not yet been arrested.
It comes after a 45-year-old man married a six-year-old girl in Afghanistan last month.
The man, who is already married to two other women, bought the young girl from her family. The wedding took place in Marjah district, with both the child’s father and the groom since detained but not formally charged.
The Taliban has instructed the groom to wait until the child reaches nine before he can take her home.
Child marriage remains rampant in Afghanistan, often fuelled by poverty, compelling families to sell their daughters into matrimony as a means of survival.
A local activist named Mahbob despaired while speaking to The Afghan Times: “There are many families in our village who have given away their daughters for money. No one helps them. People are desperate.”
This bartering of girls for marriage, known as walwar, involves trading them for cash based on attributes like appearance, health, and education.
However, financial desperation isn’t the sole motive; some girls are traded to settle blood feuds between enemies.
Amiri, 50 from Uruzgan, opened up about marrying off her 14-year-old daughter to a 27-year-old man for 300,000 Afghanis. She admitted, “I knew she was too young, but we had nothing at home. I used the money to feed the rest of my family.”
A UN report last year indicated that such oppression has sparked a 25 per cent rise in child and forced marriages.
The International Criminal Court has slammed the treatment of Afghan women as a crime against humanity, issuing arrest warrants for two top Taliban officials.