WUNRN
Women's Feature Service
By Sarada
Lahangir
Laxmi Khara, 20, a
Paraja tribal from Nandapur village of
Koraput district got married in 2007 when she was 15. After giving
birth to twin girls who died within a few days of their birth and a
miscarriage, today she is the mother of a toddler, but both mother and
child appear highly malnourished. (Credit: Sarada Lahangir\WFS)
Malkangiri (Women’s
Feature Service) – Most homes in the
Kalyani’s story is
tragic even in a region where child marriage is the accepted practice. An
orphan left in the care of her grandmother, she was married at nine to a boy
who was about three years older. Before she delivered the child she now holds
in her arms, she had gone through two pregnancies that ended in miscarriages.
Today, her baby boy is severely malnourished, and Kalyani cannot breast feed
him because she herself is so weak.
There are many women
in tribal Odisha whose lives follow a similar pattern. Take Laxmi Khara, 20, a
Paraja tribal from Nandapur
While travelling in
Odisha’s tribal belt of Koraput, Rayagada, Malkangiri, and Nawrangpur
districts, one has come across innumerable Kalyanis and Laxmis, girls who got
married when they were still children and are now holding babies in their arms.
According to UNICEF’s
State of the World's Children, 2012, report, over 37 per cent girls in Odisha
marry before they are 18 – the legally sanctioned age – and 13 per cent men get
married before they are 21, the legal age of marriage for men. “This has
serious repercussions particularly on the health of young women when we
consider child birth,” Shairose Mawji, the chief of UNICEF, Odisha pointed out.
She referred to the
data from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3), according to which 14 per
cent women aged between 15-19 years were already mothers or pregnant at the
time of Survey in 2005-06. According to Mawji, early marriage and motherhoood
was the result of the lack of education. “Less girls than boys attend school –
a gap that increases they grow up. Between the age of 6-10 years, 86 per cent
boys and 82 per cent girls attend school. But by the time the children reach
the age of 15-17, only 32 per cent boys and 13 per cent girls continue their
education,” she has noted in the report.
The noted medical
journal, ‘The Lancet’, warns that child marriage could be a crippling medical
and social burden to women in
I came across Chandru
Muduli, who lost his wife Raila, to pregnancy-related complications. She was 18
and her husband revealed that at 30 he got married to Raila when she was just
12. The girl suffered abortions twice and her third pregnancy ended with her
death. When asked what his late wife ate as part of her daily meals, he said,
“She had whatever was available, and sometimes we managed to give her ragi.”
His straightforward answer revealed the true story of under-nutrition that
marks most diets in this part of the world, with women eating even less because
they invariably ate last.
As the Chief District
Medical Officer (CDMO) of Koraput, Dr Nishi Kant Kar is familiar with the
scenario that Chandru Muduli drew up. Says Dr Kar, “The general recommendation
as far as caloric intake is concerned is that women need about 1750 to 2000
calories per day, which should include 20 per cent protein and 15 to 20 per
cent fat. It is advisable for expectant mothers to consume 300 extra calories
per day, while lactating mothers require about 550 calories at the initial
level and this could gradually come down to around 400 calories per day. But
the average tribal woman consumes less than a 1000 calories per day whether or
not she is pregnant or feeding her baby. This leads to severe anemia and other
complications.”
According to Dr Kar,
his department is trying to its best to raise levels of awareness about better
food practices among the villagers in this region, especially pregnant women,
through its network of anganwadi workers and Accredited Social Health Activists
(ASHAs).
Poor nutrition with
early marriage leads to a particularly dangerous set of circumstances. Says a
Malkangiri-based doctor, Anuj Padhi, “In a child marriage, the individuals
involved are not yet ready, either physically, mentally or emotionally, to take
on the responsibilities of adult life. Child marriage also threatens the health
of the young mother; a girl giving birth at 15 is five times more likely to die
in the process of giving birth than a girl of 19 or older, and her infant is 60
per cent more likely to succumb as well.”
The Prohibition of
Child Marriage Act, 2006, was passed following an order from the Supreme Court
of India. Under this Act, which came into force in 2007, all the states in the
country were directed to frame rules as expeditiously as possible. The Act
prescribes two years’ rigorous imprisonment or a penalty of Rs 1 lakh (US$1=Rs
50), or both, for those guilty of marrying girls aged below 18. Under the
Orissa Prohibition of Child Marriage Rules, 2009, the state was supposed to
appoint child marriage prohibition officers in all the 30 districts. These
officers were required to create awareness on the issue, prevent the
solemnisation of child marriages and lodge cases at the local police station
should such marriages take place. Additionally, the local district magistrate
was also deemed to be the Child Marriage Prohibition Officer, with powers to
prevent the solemnisation of mass child marriages, on traditionally appointed
days such as Akshaya Tritiya.
The law,
unfortunately, still remains unimplemented in many tribal districts of the
state. While mass child marriages – such as those seen in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh
– do not take place here, many girls end up being married in their early teens,
when they should be in school.
According to social
activist, Sanjit Patnaik, director of the South Orissa Voluntary Action (SOVA),
ending child marriage will continue to remain challenging because even parents
who are aware of its negative impacts find it too difficult to resist the heavy
weight of tradition. “Besides, there are economic and social pressures as well.
Clearly, the law alone won’t work. It requires a change in the psyche of the
communities here who constitute some of the most backward and illiterate in the
country.”
According to Patnaik
if two interventions are take seriously, they could prove to be the best way to
address child marriages, at least in the long term: The education and
empowerment of women. He puts it this way, “In a largely male-dominated
country, these are the only ways to end this harmful social practice.”