Author: Correspondent
Publication: The Telegraph
Date: May 31, 2006
URL: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1060531/asp/bengal/story_6292150.asp
Eleven-year-old Rangeela Khatun should have
been playing around in her village like any other child. But she is already
a housewife, trying to help out her mother-in-law in the kit-chen at Ichhakhali
village, about 250 km from Calcutta.
Rangeela was forcibly married off to 14-year-old
Akil Sheikh last Friday following an order of a shalishi board comprising
village elders.
Her father Nurful Sheikh had complained to
them that Akil had fallen in love with his daughter because the boy was once
seen talking to her at the grocer's.
Nurful, who lost the fing- ers on his left
hand to a blast, hawks spices to earn a living.
Akil's father Hemajuddin Sheikh, who owned
two bighas and was a well-known mason, died three months ago. The boy, who
inherited his land, also works as a helper to various local masons.
Financially, he and his mother Kalpana Bewa
are better off than Nurful's family.
Sahabuddin Ahmed, the local CPM secretary
who was part of the panel that decided on the punishment for Akil, said the
villagers pressured Kalpana to accept Rangeela as her daughter-in-law.
The mother said: "Is it possible to fall
in love with such a small child? Nurful, a local tough who has a criminal
past, forced this marriage on us. I am a helpless widow and Akil is only 14."
Akil's elder brother lives with his wife separately.
The boy said: "I had no relationship
with Rangeela. Only once, about two weeks ago, I had spoken to her at the
grocery."
"What can I do?" Akil asked. "My
wife is staying with me and it appears I will have to accept her."
The Congress chief of the local Lakshmijola
village panchayat, Musharaf Hossain, however, could not support the child
marriage. He informed Raghunathgunj block development officer Samanjit Sengupta
about it.
"The marriage is illegal. I lodged a
complaint with police today against the girl's father, the boy's mother and
those present at the shalishi meeting," Sengupta said.
Ahmed admitted that he was present at the
meeting where the marriage was ordered. "We ordered the marriage because
the boy and the girl were having an affair," he added.
