Author - Manoj Kumar
I watched today's episode of Crime Patrol Dustak. A girl from a village got married to a boy of another village. She was not received well by the groom and his family. They started demanding dowry like scooter and color TV which her family could not provide and from there her ordeal started. The groom's family started torturing her in all possible ways, mentally and physically. They used to beat her mercilessly. They did not give her proper food, even they locked her inside a cow's fodder room where her husband and one of his neighbors used to sexually exploit her almost daily. All these led her to become so weak that she was not even able to walk on her feet. She was kept locked in such inhumane conditions for about two years continuously in the same fodder room. So many times her parents came to meet her but they were not allowed by her husband's family unless they fulfilled their dowry demand.
Almost two years passed like this. When the boy's family realized that now the pressure was mounting on them to allow her family to meet her, and if they did so they would land into trouble if the truth comes out before her family members. Therefore, they planned to send her to one of their relatives to stay with them and once she reaches there, they would tell her family that the girl has eloped. But by then as she was not given adequate food, her health had deteriorated considerably and she was not even able to walk properly. They did not want to see her to any doctor since this might have led the villagers to know about their torture on the girl. Some how they provided her food and medicine so that she could recover this much that she could walk on her feet. Thereafter as per the plan, her husband took her to his relative, a man in his sixties. Leaving her there he came back to his home. The girl's ordeal did not end there too. Now his husband's relative and his two adult sons started sexually exploiting her almost everyday.
When they had enough of her fulfilling their lusts, they sold her to a cruel moneylender where her ordeal continued unabated. She once tried to run from their net, but only to be caught again from the bus she was travelling in to reach at her parent's home. In order to give her a lesson, the moneylender and his men beat her mercilessly like beasts so much so that it became absolutely necessary for them to take her to a doctor to save her life, where one person who was working in that clinic recognized her. This news of her presence in a moneylender's home was informed to her parents. Then somehow she was rescued by her parents with the help of the villagers. Also the moneylender and the relative of her husband and his two sons were arrested by police. However her husband and his family members were absconding for a few months after which they were arrested. Not surprisingly as usual what happens in India, within few months all of them were free on bail. Charge sheet has been filed in this case. All the culprits are since out of jail.
Now the most pertinent questions are-
1) why such ordeal started to that girl ?
2) even after such inhumane and cruel treatment with the girl, how the culprits are still free on bail?
Answer lies in another set of questions-
In the name of tradition, why dowry is still so much prevalent in our society? Why don't we educate our children that we won't take or give dowry for their marriage?
Why don't we educate our girls? They remain so much silent to tolerate all this, specially girls from rural background, why?
How as a member of the same society, we remain silent if such things keep on happening with someone in our vicinity and we think it's their internal affair, why should we interfere?
How can we be so insensitive? If you are a father or brother of a girl, you must realize, this thing can happen to any girl, even your daughter or sister.
I watched today's episode of Crime Patrol Dustak. A girl from a village got married to a boy of another village. She was not received well by the groom and his family. They started demanding dowry like scooter and color TV which her family could not provide and from there her ordeal started. The groom's family started torturing her in all possible ways, mentally and physically. They used to beat her mercilessly. They did not give her proper food, even they locked her inside a cow's fodder room where her husband and one of his neighbors used to sexually exploit her almost daily. All these led her to become so weak that she was not even able to walk on her feet. She was kept locked in such inhumane conditions for about two years continuously in the same fodder room. So many times her parents came to meet her but they were not allowed by her husband's family unless they fulfilled their dowry demand.
Almost two years passed like this. When the boy's family realized that now the pressure was mounting on them to allow her family to meet her, and if they did so they would land into trouble if the truth comes out before her family members. Therefore, they planned to send her to one of their relatives to stay with them and once she reaches there, they would tell her family that the girl has eloped. But by then as she was not given adequate food, her health had deteriorated considerably and she was not even able to walk properly. They did not want to see her to any doctor since this might have led the villagers to know about their torture on the girl. Some how they provided her food and medicine so that she could recover this much that she could walk on her feet. Thereafter as per the plan, her husband took her to his relative, a man in his sixties. Leaving her there he came back to his home. The girl's ordeal did not end there too. Now his husband's relative and his two adult sons started sexually exploiting her almost everyday.
When they had enough of her fulfilling their lusts, they sold her to a cruel moneylender where her ordeal continued unabated. She once tried to run from their net, but only to be caught again from the bus she was travelling in to reach at her parent's home. In order to give her a lesson, the moneylender and his men beat her mercilessly like beasts so much so that it became absolutely necessary for them to take her to a doctor to save her life, where one person who was working in that clinic recognized her. This news of her presence in a moneylender's home was informed to her parents. Then somehow she was rescued by her parents with the help of the villagers. Also the moneylender and the relative of her husband and his two sons were arrested by police. However her husband and his family members were absconding for a few months after which they were arrested. Not surprisingly as usual what happens in India, within few months all of them were free on bail. Charge sheet has been filed in this case. All the culprits are since out of jail.
Now the most pertinent questions are-
1) why such ordeal started to that girl ?
2) even after such inhumane and cruel treatment with the girl, how the culprits are still free on bail?
Answer lies in another set of questions-
In the name of tradition, why dowry is still so much prevalent in our society? Why don't we educate our children that we won't take or give dowry for their marriage?
Why don't we educate our girls? They remain so much silent to tolerate all this, specially girls from rural background, why?
How as a member of the same society, we remain silent if such things keep on happening with someone in our vicinity and we think it's their internal affair, why should we interfere?
How can we be so insensitive? If you are a father or brother of a girl, you must realize, this thing can happen to any girl, even your daughter or sister.
I just urge you all that don't encourage the system of dowry. Don't make the marriage of your boys and girls an issue of prestige that you would marry them in your own caste and community even if you have better choice outside. If your boy or girl wants to get married to someone of his or her choice and you find that the boy is equally matching to him or her though they are not from the same caste or society, don't come in their way. Allow them to marry and start their own world. Be custodians as parents and not a ring master of your girls. Change your mindsets please.
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मित्रों यदि मेरा यह पोस्ट आपके दिल को जरा भी छू कर गुजरा हो तो मुझे विश्वास है कि आप मेरे इस प्रयास को लाइक दे कर मुझे और भी अच्छा लिखने की प्रेरणा, स्नेह और आशीर्वाद देंगे। आप अगर मुझे मेरे फेसबुक प्रोफाइल पर फॉलो करते हैं तो आपको मेरे शेयर किये सारे पोस्ट्स आपके नोटिफिकेशन्स में मिलते रहेंगे।
because such persons are not publicaly beaten and thrown out of the society as most are themselves cruel and hypocratic......god help us and the poor girls
ReplyDeleteWhy do people give dowry? Isn't it the fault of the parents of the girls as well?
ReplyDelete