Timely help, grit, determination made girls overcome adversity Girls saved from child marriage ace Inter
Two 16-year-old girls from Hayatnagar, whose marriages were stopped in the nick of time last year because they were underage, have proved their mettle in this year’s Intermediate exams.
K. Sandhya got 92 per cent marks, to emerge as the college topper in the CEC stream, which has 140 students. V. Sandhya got 88 per cent. They are both studying in the same class at NRI Junior College in Vanasthalipuram and were classmates in St Joseph’s school in Turkayamjal, Hayatnagar, before that.
These girls would never have continued their studies if their parents had had their way a year ago.
V. Sandhya’s engagement was fixed by her parents to take place on April 3, 2015, the very day she was to appear for a Social Sciences paper in her SSC exams. She was reluctant to enter into the marriage and her school friends alerted teachers, and a child rights organisation intervened to put a stop to the illegal marriage. Achyut Rao of Balala Hakkula Sangham said that their members went to V. Sandhya’s house and warned the groom’s party that marrying a minor girl was a serious violation of the law. He said that the Ranga Reddy Collector responded when the matter was brought to his notice.
V. Sandhya’s interest in studying drove her to write the Paper-2 exam in the same subject. And then she suffered a big shock when two weeks later, her father committed suicide by hanging himself. Neighbours had made fun of him for the marriage fiasco, V. Sandhya said.
V. Sandhya and K. Sandhya, two 16-yearold girls from Hayatnagar whose marriages were stopped as they were under-age, have proved their mettle in this year’s Intermediate exams.
In the case of K. Sandhya, her marriage was fixed for April 20 with a maternal uncle who was 35 years old. Her engagement was held earlier and did not clash with the SSC exams so she appeared for the exams without any problem.
But when the school authorities and child rights organisation got to know of the marriage plans, they intervened, on April 8, and warned the prospective bridegroom what he was doing was illegal.
“The girl’s uncle had lent money to her father. As her father, a private employee, was unable to repay the money, the uncle forced the family to get their daughter married to him. We intervened after which he backed off.