Rescued by friends, bride back to school

JAIPUR: Married off as a child bride and sent to live with her in-laws, 16-year-old Anju (name changed) owes her fresh lease of life to her classmates.

A day after she was sent to live with her husband, her classmates kicked up a fuss on finding her missing from school in the Jaipur slum where she studied in class 10.Her friends, many of them barefoot, went looking for her. On being told she had been packed off to live with her 28-year-old husband, they ran from pillar to post until they tracked her down.

The search for their friend was arduous, but the ending sweet.

Anju has been rescued and reunited with her friends. On Wednesday, all 13 of them – Anju included – were enrolled in government schools to continue with their studies.“It is an inspirational story,” said Gopal Singh of Sakhi Bal Niketan Evam Sewa Samiti, a non-governmental organisation that ran the informal school where the children studied earlier. “They are true mascots of the campaign against child marriage”.

Anju’s story began in 2012 when her brothers married her off to Ravi , who was 10 years older than her, in another city slum. “I was 11 when I was married because one of my brothers was getting married to a girl from my husband’s family. In our society, there’s a tradition of exchanging girls – if you want a bride, you give your daughter in marriage in return,” Anju explained. She continued to live with her brothers.

On May 30 this year, she was sent to her husband’s home, prompting her friends to look for her from the next day.

It wasn’t easy to find her though. Her friends first went to the local police station, only to be told that no action could be taken.