NEW DELHI: Jharkhand BJP chief's Tala Marandi's son Munna Marandi has reportedly married an 11 year old girl. Media reports state that the marriage took place on June 27, followed by a reception on June 29. Marandi, it seems, was set to marry the girl’s cousin, but the family backed out at the last minute, leaving the politician’s son to marry the class 6 student instead.

At the time of writing, an FIR was filed against Munna Marandi for marrying a minor girl.



The news comes as another girl accused Munna Marandi of sexual abuse. The 16 year old girl reportedly submitted an application before the State Commission for Women against Marandi for sexually abusing her for two years on the pretext of marriage. "He (Munna) first saw me during the poll campaign in 2014. Later, he met me a few times. On January 1, 2016, he came to wish me Happy New Year. I was alone in the house. He forced himself on me. When I resisted, he promised marriage. When my mother and elder sister came, I told them everything. Over a period of time, he began taking me to various places. Believing in his promise of marriage, neither I nor my family opposed,” the girl has been quoted as saying.

District Child Protection officer, Ritesh Kumar, said they are investigating the matter of the marriage. “We are investigating the issue. Marandi's son got married to Mahagama's resident Bhagan Baski's fourth daughter,” says Kumar (as quoted in the media).

"On one side, the BJP and the Prime Minister chant the slogan of 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' and on the other side, the son of their party president in Jharkhand is married to a girl who is minor," Congress leader Shobha Oza told ANI. "There is another instance where an underage girl has accused that the son of the BJP's Jharkhand president sexually exploited her for two years. All these instances show that how girls and women are treated in the houses of the BJP ministers. Investigation should take place in this incident. I would like to request the National Women Commission (NCW) to take cognizance of this matter. Guilty should be punished in this case," she added.

The incident reveals the deep roots of child marriage in India -- a country where the law prohibits women under the age of 18 and men under the age of 21 from marrying (albeit, it’s more complicated than that as lobbying by Muslim bodies ensures that the law applies only to (a) to Hindus, Christians, Jains, Buddhists and those who are non-Muslims of India, and (b) outside the state of Jammu and Kashmir. For Muslims of India, child marriage definition and regulations based on Sharia and Nikah has been claimed as a personal law subject). The reality, however, is vastly different, as the International Center for Research on Women estimate India's child marriage rate to be 47%. In fact, according UNICEF, in a list of countries comprising of “child marriage hot spots” India weighs in at number 13.


(Source: UNICEF State of the World's Children, 2013 - data from UNICEF Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS), Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) and other national surveys, and refers to the most recent year available during the period 2002-2011. Source: United Nations).

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RAHUL GARG