India
oi-Oneindia Staff
When a child marriage is stopped in a small town in Haryana’s Jind, how far can its impact travel? One would imagine the word might spread to nearby places like Karnal or Rohtak, perhaps across Punjab. But what if that one act of defiance reaches all the way to a remote village 1200 km away, in Bihar, and leads to six more child marriages being stopped?
Following an intervention by NGO MDD that stopped a child marriage in Jind, Haryana, awareness spread to Bihar, leading to the prevention of six additional child marriages by informing families that marrying before 18 is illegal.
In a single stroke, not one or two, but seven children -some just 12, or 15 years old-are saved from a life of abuse, exploitation, and lost opportunities. That is the quiet power of change. It travels. It multiplies.
Nadira and her husband Hasim, both daily-wage labourers, have been living in a village hardly 12 km from the Jind District Headquarters, for 20 years. Originally from Bihar, they were themselves married young when Nadira was just 15.
“In our families, getting married at 12 or 13 is absolutely normal,” says Nadira. “So when our daughter turned 12, we naturally thought of getting her married.”
So when a marriage proposal for Iqra (name changed) came from a 31-year-old man, the couple readily agreed. “He was wealthy, didn’t ask for dowry. It felt like a dream,” she recalls. Added to this, they were worried about an elderly neighbour who had been troubling their daughter Iqra. Marriage seemed like protection.
But a neighbour, alarmed at the situation, alerted NGO Mission to the Desperate and Destitute (MDD) of India that works on child protection in the district and a partner of Just Rights for Children (JRC). JRC is India’s largest network of over 250 NGOs across 418 districts. MDD acted swiftly. The local police, Child Marriage Protection Officer, and NGO staff reached the venue.
“The venue was decorated and there were around 50 people including families of both the bride and groom, and other guests. Pheras were about to take place when the team stopped the wedding. From the families to the caterers and guests present, everyone was explained that child marriage is a punishable offense as per Indian laws and that each one present there could be sent to jail for participating in the crime,” Narendra Sharma, District Coordinator, MDD of India.
“When they told us marrying your child before 18 is a crime, I was stunned. We never thought that it could be a crime to marry your child at 12,” says Nadira. “I was angry at first. But not anymore.”
Iqra’s marriage was stopped, and her parents signed an undertaking promising to wait till she turned 18. MDD helped enrol both daughters in school and is connecting the family to relevant government schemes.
But the impact didn’t stop there.
“When I called my bhabhi (sister-in-law) in Bihar and told her child marriage is illegal, she cancelled her 16-year-old son’s wedding to a 14-year girl,” Nadira says. Her sister, too, decided to postpone her two daughters’ weddings. Hasim, who was quiet all this while also adds, “Even my cousin cancelled his daughter’s wedding after hearing about the law.”
Surinder Singh Mann, CEO, MDD of India, explains, “Sometimes, a rescue is not just a rescue. It becomes a ripple that shields many more. When a child marriage was prevented in Haryana, no one imagined it would send shockwaves all the way to Bihar. But it did. That one intervention, timely and resolute, protected seven more children. This is how change really travels, not in headlines, but in the quiet power of one life saved becoming many.”
While Haryana’s child marriage rate is 12.5%, Bihar’s is over 40.8%. That the rescue in Jind could help prevent multiple weddings in Bihar is a powerful reminder that each step taken in the right direction can echo across borders, saving young lives in places we may never even see.
