Married at 12, freed by court at 21: Meet the Jodhpur woman who won the right to annul her marriage

While annulling Khushbu’s marriage last week, Judge Varun Talwar of Family Court Number 2, Jodhpur, said that child marriage destroys both the present and future of children and that the society must take strong steps to end this practice. The marriage was found in violation of section 3 (child marriages to be voidable at the option of contracting party being a child), and other sections of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006.

This came about 18 months after Khusbhu sought annulment of her marriage, saying it was solemnised under social pressure without her consent when she was merely 12 years of age.

Khushbu said the realisation that she didn’t want to stay married dawned on her a few years ago, after she faced pressure from her supposed in-laws who wanted gauna (for her to live with her husband).

“I told my family that I don’t wish to keep this child marriage. So, I went to a mahila thana and came to know about didi (Dr Kriti Bharti) and then I met her. She filed my case in the court and helped a lot,” says Khushbu.

She credits Bharti — the Managing Trustee of Saarthi Trust and a rehabilitation psychologist – for being instrumental in the annulment, saying Bharti “has given me the biggest happiness of my life”.

Bharti says Khushbu’s victory “is not just hers, but a message for society. Every girl deserves her rights. We are now working on her proper rehabilitation”.

Khusbu now says she wants “to do something good in life”.  Khushbu had dropped out of Class 7.

“I want to be able to stand on my own two feet.” For now, she is gearing up to clear her Class 10 examinations and finish her studies, saying: “I have to fulfill Didi’s promise.”

“We have a condition here (at Saarthi), you don’t pay the ‘fees’ monetarily, but by studying. You have to become empowered, you have to get education, that’s more important,” says Bharti.

Speaking on Khushbu’s case, Bharti says “she was forced into child marriage due to community pressure as part of mausar/nukta pratha (tradition), where if a maternal or paternal grand-parent passes away, then all the grandchildren are married off with mrityubhoj (a post-death ceremony where food is served) with the reasoning being that the deceased’s soul will be at peace”.

She says an overwhelming majority of the cases she comes across are through mausar tradition, “The pressure then is such that the families barely check the background of the boy or the girl.” And if a family doesn’t agree, then they face the risk of ostracisation from the caste and community.

For Bharti, who has helped annul 54 child marriages and stopped over 2,200, the task is far from over.

Khushbu’s younger siblings, a brother and sister in mid-teens, were also married off as kids, with the sister being married off with Khushbu. Asked about them, Khushbu says, “Once they grow up, they will decide whether they want to continue their marriages or not.”