Minor survivor of marital rape rescued in Haryana

Ranchi: A 15-year-old girl from Jamshedpur, who had been a victim of marital rape and domestic violence for the past nine months, was rescued from Haryana's Rewari district on Sunday morning.
The girl, who got married to a 45-year-old man from Haryana last year, was brutally tortured by her husband and in-laws and kept locked up in the house, the survivor's elder sister, who went to Rewari a few days ago, said in her FIR on Saturday.
"The elder sister said the minor was treated inhumanly at her in laws' house. After lodging the FIR, we contacted Delhi-based NGO Shakti Vahini, who on Sunday morning rescued the girl with the help of Haryana police," said Priyanka Anand, officer in-charge of Jamshedpur women's PS where the report was lodged.
The minor's father died a few years ago and her mother is a daily wage earner. The family stayed in a slum in the steel city's Govindpur locality and she is the third among five siblings. The girl's sister said the marriage proposal came from the man's house and the ceremony in Jamshedpur around nine months ago was attended by a few relatives of his from Haryana.
But Rishi Kant of Shakti Vahini said the girl's mother-in-law claimed that the family paid Rs 1 lakh to a "trafficker" who acted as a mediator. The Haryana police are yet to arrest the man as they are waiting for their Jamshedpur counterpart to send a copy of the FIR lodged by the girl's sister.
However, both Jamshedpur and Haryana police acted with alacrity and rescued the girl within 24 hours of the report being lodged.
Rishi Kant said the girl looked frail and frightened when she was rescued in the morning and she had bruises all over her body. "She was produced in front of the Child Welfare Committee in Rewari and will be sent for medical check-up soon," he added.
The girl's in-laws said they paid Rs. 1 lakh to the person who arranged the marriage."
Talking to TOI over phone, the survivor said her husband raped her every night and assaulted her when she insisted on meeting her parents. "They beat me up even this (Sunday) morning when I requested them to let me meet my mother. Things were fine in the beginning (of our married life) but gradually they started abusing and torturing me. They would keep me locked up, not let me speak to anybody and do all the housework," Seema said.
The Jamshedpur minor is among hundreds of vulnerable girls from economically backward families who are trafficked to northern states with skewed sex ratio. Acute poverty and illiteracy often force parents to sell their daughters to local traffickers.
Last April, a 20-year-old girl from Ranchi was forced to marry a 32-year-old deaf and dumb man from Allahabad who had paid her parents Rs 10,000. In October the same year, a middle-aged man sold his wife to a person from Jaladhar. In April 2013, a 13-year-old girl from Lohardaga was sold for Rs 1.5 lakh to the family of a mentally deranged man from Jaipur.
Baidnath Kumar, a local activist fighting against human trafficking, said, "Earlier, girls from Jharkhand were mostly trafficked to Delhi and its neighbouring areas for domestic work. It has been only two-three years that girls from our state are being trafficked for marriages."
Koderma police arrested five men, all part of a trafficking network, in January last for trying to sell a seven-year-old girl in Haryana for Rs 80,000. A woman from Khunti was arrested last year for selling three minor girls for Rs 1.5 lakh.
"Traffickers have shifted base following prompt action by police and NGOs against Delhi-based placement agencies. Now they are supplying girls to Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan for marriage as the sex ratio there is very less," said Kumar.
Rishi Kant said serious measures are needed to create awareness at the school level. "The chief minister is doing much for the development of the state and focusing on issues like economic empowerment, village outreach and health for which the changes can also be seen. However, on the other hand, trafficking is breaking the backbone of the state as every day we are getting information about Jharkhand girls being trafficked and tortured," he added.