Won't let you visit parents until you bear children: In-laws tell Jharkhand brides

Singhbhum (Jharkhand): Brides from Jharkhand married in Rajasthan and Haryana are facing a new dilemma, as their husbands and in-laws do not let them visit their parents until they bear children.

According to a report in the Hindustan Times, the insecurity of losing the brides has made families stop them from visiting their maternal homes until they become mothers.

The logic is that once they bear children, these women have to come back even if they are not happy with their in-laws.

Since most of the girls are minors or from poor families, several such instances go unreported due to lack of finances or social stigma.

The trend was observed after a minor slum girl called the NGO, Childline, to help her stop her marriage to a man from Rajasthan, said the report.

In her complaint, the girl had mentioned a relative who was married off to a man from Rajasthan. The new bride was not allowed to visit her parents until she delivered a baby. “I do not want to get married in the family that bars a girl from visiting her parents till she becomes a mother,” the girl was reported as saying.  

Chairperson of the District Child Welfare Committee (DCWC), east Singhbhum, Prabha Jaiswal was quoted corroborating the girl’s claim, saying that she had received such complaints in the past.

“Few women from the slum areas came to me recently, regretting their decision to marry their daughters out of their culture to grooms from Rajasthan and Haryana. They said their daughters were not allowed to meet them till they became mothers,” she was quoted as saying.

Childline also has encountered similar stories from west Jharkhand’s Chakradharpur, where a few girls wedded to grooms from Haryana and Kashmir faced similar restrictions, said the report.

A village-level child protection committee has been formed to gather information about such instances. The committee is also creating awareness against child marriages, urging people to report if they encounter the same.

Two minor girls who were taken away on the pretext of marriage were recently rescued, the report said quoting police.

Due to Punjab and Haryana’s abysmal sex ratios, several unmarried men look for brides in the slums and rural parts of Jharkhand.

Rajasthan has a male-female ratio of 926 while it is 903 in Haryana.