Would you expect a 17-year-old from a slum, someone who has dropped out of school at the age of ten, to stop a child marriage and fight for children’s rights? You may not, but that is what Farida Khatun did. Child marriages are not uncommon in Farida’s neighborhood in Kolkata.
There, a 15-year-old is not a child, rather is seen as someone who has to be married off at the earliest. When the obsolete custom was ready to dress her friend as a bride, Farida knew what to do. She called 1098 and got the groom and the girl’s family arrested.
A member of the Children’s Parliament by the NGO, Child In Need Institute (CINI), that functions in the slums and red light areas to tackle issues, Farida proudly narrates the incident — “The girl who was about to get married was just 15. She was a part of our parliament. Suddenly, she stopped coming.
Nobody knew the reason. One day, a friend and I saw her sobbing, sitting outside her house. When we asked her why, with teary eyes she said that her parents were forcefully getting her married to an older man, who were already married and has two kids. I told her that I would talk to her mother but she refused, fearing that her mother would scream at us, but we were ready.”
Unfortunately, the girl was right. Her mother stood firm by her decision. She called Farida jealous and accused her of stopping the marriage because she herself wasn’t able to get married. “She even went on to say bad things about me to my neighbours, which upset my mother. I was threatened by her relatives. Some of them even said that they would kill me.
My mother was really scared,” says Farida. Helpless, Farida and her friends had no other option but to call Childline. One of them stole a phone from their house and dialled 1098 at five in the morning, without letting anyone else know. By midnight, the girl’s mother and the groom were arrested. “The girl’s mother was cursing us for months. But then, she discovered the whereabouts of her daughter’s exfiancé, who was married and had two children. Now, she thanks us.
The girl, on the other hand, has restarted her education,” says a proud Farida. The Children’s Parliament has around 30 children from economically backward families.
They’re trained by the CINI volunteers to fight social evils. Farida recently organised a rally against child labour in her neighborhood. She has also reported a few cases to Childline. Over the years, they have become more organised. Now, these children are allotted a room at the ward counselor’s office. She directs complaints related to children to them.
The initiative has changed Farida’s personal life too. She had to drop out of school at the age of ten, when her father died. Her mother, who took up a job as a housemaid, found it difficult to send her children to school and fill their stomachs at the same time. Serendipitously, Farida met a few field workers of CINI who asked her to join the parliament.
That was the first time she had heard girls put forth their opinions. Convincing her family was not an easy job by any means, but she succeeded. She restarted her schooling and is now busy preparing for her class X board examinations. She also works part-time as a waitress at a tea stall. “My siblings too go to school now. I really wish to continue my studies. That is my dream right now,” she says firmly.