Purulia tribal girl walks 12km to stop marriage

PURULIA: Resisting parental pressure to get married, a minor tribal girl walked 12km from her remote Purulia village to the local police station just before the would-be groom and his family arrived to finalise the wedding date.
Class XI student Namita Mahato’s parents were then summoned to Puncha police station on Tuesday and made to sign an affidavit pledging not to marry her off till she came of age.
For one and a half months, Namita (16) had pleaded with father Dinesh and mother Kangsha to let her keep studying at Gopalnagar High School near Nirbhaipur village. But determined to fix her wedding, they brushed off their objections.
Dinesh is a poor farmer with a small plot and supports his family largely by tilling other farmers’ lands. Kangsha is a housewife and the couple also has a 13-year-old daughter.
After the couple chose a youth from Punuru village in Purulia’s Kenda as the groom, they invited him and his parents to see Namita on Tuesday and finalise the wedding date. Namita fled home just when she was to start preparing for a sitting with the youth. With no public transport in the village, Namita walked 12km to the police station. After two hours, she arrived and told the duty officer: “My parents want to get me married though I am a minor. Here is my Madhyamik admit card with my date of birth. I want to study.”
The duty officer called OC Biswajit Banerjee, who heard out Namita and called BDO Ajoy Sengupta to the police station. The BDO and OC then summoned the parents. At the police station, Dinesh and Kangsha were told that “it is a criminal offence to give a minor girl in marriage”. They promised to abandon plans to get Namita married and were made to sign an affidavit to that effect.
Praising Namita, the BDO gifted her a set of dresses. “We will ensure there are no further hindrances to Namita continuing her studies. We will also make arrangements for her to take computer lessons,” said Sengupta.
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