After a long wait of 18 years and a month Santa Devi Meghwal was out of her Girl child marriage.
On Tuesday, magistrate at the family court Prithvi Raj Sharma declared Santa’s child marriage as finally annulled after she moved to the court on May 13, about five months back.
Santa exclaimed, “I had a heavy burden on my head and today I feel quite relieved,” who is 20 now and came out with the tears of joy and laughter in her eyes after the court pronounced the order in her favour.
Santa,who is hailing from Jodhpur, was married at the tender age of 11 months in a “mausar” ceremony, which took place after the death of some relative in rural areas to one who was nine-year-old Sanwal Ram.
“But Santa was aware about this incident three years back at a family function, she then resisted and convinced her parents to walk out of this matrimony ,” said Kriti Bharti of Sarthi Trust, who Santa approached to help her annul her marriage.
The little bride was determined towards her decision and moved to annul her marriage which was solemnized in her infancy, irked the members of local cast panchayat of her village. Soon after this the panchayat member slapped a fine of whopping Rs 16 lakh on her and threatened to ostracise the family from the community , shared Bharti.
“First we tried to talk to her husband Sanwal Ram and her in-laws with a hope to file for annulment with mutual consent. But when the boy’s family remained adamant about continuing with the matrimony , we had to move the court,” Bharti said.
“During the entire process of annulment plea, those who were against, gradually turned supportive or indifferent, which helped us achieve our objective smoothly ,” said Bharti.
Now the priority of Santa who is pursuing graduation in arts, is to complete her graduation next year and then begin her preparation to be come a teacher.
First Published in Times of India.
Representational purpose image used.
