Rajasthan: This teen’s goal is to stop child marriage

JAIPUR: Aakash Banjara (14) of Neemri village at Thanaghazi Block visits at least two houses of her community with her elder sister every Sunday advocating against child marriage. Banjara had got married even before she could start taking baby steps with a four-year-old boy in the nearby village.
By the age of 12, the groom’s family started exerting pressure on her family to formally solemnise the marriage. Banjara opposed it and requested the groom’s family to wait until she completed class 12. The pressure from the groom’s family and fear of facing a penalty by the community elders for dissolving the marriage gave her sleepless nights for years.
“I initially convinced my father to resist the marriage and once he was okay, he started convincing other family members. It took a lot of courage for him to resist the pressure from the community and finally the marriage got dissolved,” said Banjara.
Her case came to the ears of another child marriage survivor supported by Bal Ashram Trust run by the Nobel laureate Kailesh Sathyarthi. Banjara attended the training programme by the Ashram encouraging girls like her to highlight the ills of child marriage. “I have taken a pledge to reach out to every household in my village and nearby villages to convince parents and families that the evil of child marriage can not only spoil one life, but the coming generation,” said Banjara. A student of class 10 in a school supported by Bal Ashram, Banjara doesn’t get welcome everywhere.
“Most of the time I face closed doors by families and they accuse me of spoiling the tradition while some families welcome and give me time to listen to views,” said Banjara, while adding that many families unwillingly go for child marriage due to poverty, sense of social insecurity and social alienation.
Aiming to become a district collector to make strict laws restricting child marriage in the region and the country, she said, “I believe that any social evil can be countered if it gets support by the government.”