Tumakuru: In a glaring example of how minor marriages can destroy lives, a 14-year-old girl from Chikkaballapura, fled her in-laws’ home after she was forced to marry a relative and discontinue her studies.
She landed in the company of beggars at a temple in Bengaluru and was finally handed over to the cops.
The girl had high ambitions of doing higher studies but her dreams were shattered when her parents, against her wishes, got her married to the relative at a temple in Chilamattur in Andhra Pradesh recently. She disappeared from her husband, Srinivas’s house in Bagepalli, three days after her marriage and came to Bengaluru.
As she had lost the cellphone number of her friend while travelling to Bengaluru, she was forced to spend a day with beggars at Banashankari temple in the city. At night, when the beggars disappeared from the temple premises, the police noticed the girl who narrated her sad story.
According to the cops, the parents forced her to marry at a young age thinking it would be a tough task if the marriage was delayed.
The girl is a resident of Benneparti village in Gudibande taluk. In villages on the Karnataka-Andhra Pradesh border, parents usually conduct marriages of their daughters even before they attain puberty to free themselves from the burden.
Gudibande police registered a case in the presence of Child Welfare Committee officers, against the parents for forcing their minor daughter to marry.
