Teen Wants Child Marriage Annulled: Will the System Support Her?
On Left, Right and Centre, a 19-year-old girl in Rajasthan has rejected a marriage her parents entered her into when she was 11 months old, and the groom just nine. She wants the marriage annulled but is facing opposition from the boys’ family, supported by the village panchayat who's asked her parents to pay Rs 16 lakh in compensation. An NGO that has filed a police complaint on her behalf is raising some critical questions on grey areas in the law that provide absurd loopholes upholding child marriages, even though the legal marriage age for girls is 18 and for boys 21.
