Madhya Pradesh: 5-year-old girl admitted to hospital to stop her marriage

he girl’s father, Jagdish Banjara (35), was asked by the panchayat to take a dip in the Ganga, organise a feast for the village, sacrifice a goat and get his daughter married to expiate the ‘sin’ of killing a calf. (Representational)

The Guna district administration of Madhya Pradesh on Friday admitted a five-year-old girl to a government hospital at Aaron to prevent her from being married off on Saturday, considered an auspicious day. The wedding was organised on the order of a panchayat in Taharpur village, 20 km from Aaron, to prevent a curse on future marriages in the village. The girl’s father, Jagdish Banjara (35), was asked by the panchayat to take a dip in the Ganga, organise a feast for the village, sacrifice a goat and get his daughter married to expiate the ‘sin’ of killing a calf. Jagdish and his wife Gitabai fulfilled all the conditions and even got their daughter engaged a few months ago.

The marriage would have taken place on Akshaya Tritiya on Saturday had the district administration not stepped in. Gitabai approached the police, following which Jagdish, the would-be groom’s father Lalla Banjara and two senior panchayat members were made to sign a bond of Rs 20,000 each, violation of which would land them in jail. Block woman empowerment officer Atiraj Singh Sengar was asked to keep a watch on the family and the village. It was Sengar who got the girl admitted to the nutritional rehabilitation centre at the government hospital in Aaron, a facility meant for malnourished children, on Friday.

“The villagers could have put pressure on Jagdish’s family. So I moved the parents to Aaron and got the daughter admitted for a check-up. Tomorrow I will take the trio to a rest house, and take them back to the village after a couple of days,’’ Sengar told The Indian Express on phone. Anganwadi worker Bhagbai, who had been asked to visit the family daily, confirmed the development. The villagers had boycotted the family after Gitabai approached the police.

When The Indian Express visited the village recently, the locals had said they would not go ahead with any wedding unless a marriage takes place in Jagdish’s family. They claimed they had not insisted on Jagdish’s daughter’s marriage, and that the marriage of any female member in the family would suffice.