Ajmer family court annuls child marriage

AJMER: Two days before Akhshaya Tritiya on April 28, the family court here passed an order annulling the child marriage of a minor girl who was given in marriage when she was only two-and-a-half-years.
The court gave the order on a complaint filed by Kriti Bharti, rehabilitation psychologist and managing trustee of Sarthi Trust of Jodhpur.
Kriti of the trust said that this was a hat-trick of annulling child marriages for the third consecutive year the state.
The trust has annulled 32 child marriages in the country and stopped hundreds of such marriages, according to the Bharti.
According to the case, Kavita of Alwar was given in marriage to Subash, son of Hardaan Singh Gujjar and resident of Kotputli.
Kavita was good in her studies, pursued education and joined the engineering college in Ajmer. The in-laws began putting pressure on Kavita’s family and demanded she be send to reside with her ‘husband’ Subash.
“She didn’t want to remain married to Subash and approached us to annul her marriage,” said Kriti.
The trust helped her to file a petition in the court and also gave her security. The girl pleaded that she didn’t want to ‘continue’ with the marriage as it was solemnized when she was of a tender age. After hearing her pleas, the court on Wednesday gave the order annulling her child marriage.
After the orders, a visibly happy Kavita said that she felt free and wanted to live her life independently. She said she planned to pursue her career in engineering and thanked Kriti for helping her.
There was also pressure from her family, relatives and the community when she decided to annul the child marriage.
Kriti said that this was the first time in Ajmer that a child marriage has been annulled as per the Child Marriage Act 2006.
The first child marriage annulment came about following efforts by the trust in 2015 in Jodhpur, with another in 2016. This year it has happened in Ajmer, she said.
Kriti’s work has been recognised and included in the World Records India as well as in the curriculum of CBSE Class XI. She has also been honoured with Mewar Ratan and Marwar Ratan and other international awards.