RANCHI: Showing courage to avert her marriage, a 14-year-old girl got her hair chopped and dulled her appearance, making every possible effort to look ugly after she discovered that her brother and sister-in-law were planning to get her married to a stranger.
According to the girl, with no one in the family to turn to, she decided to look as ugly she can in order to avert the child marriage and got her hair chopped after borrowing Rs 200 from a friend.
After the death of her parents, Abhilasha lived with her brother and sister in law. She has two elder sisters, who have already been married.
Despite stiff resistance from her sister-in-law, Abhilasha convinced her brother and got herself admitted to a school in the village. But her happiness was extremely short-lived as she was made to drop out of the school by her Bhabhi (sister-in-law) after two days as she had found a ‘match’ for her.
In between, she was told by her neighbours that her sister in law wants to marry her off and has also found a match for her. This is when Abhilasha decided to take control of her life in order to avert the marriage.
“I borrowed Rs 200 from my friends and went directly to the saloon to get a new look and got my hair chopped to avert the marriage. My intention was to give myself as ugly look as I could so that nobody would like to marry me,” said Abhilasha. After getting her hair chopped, she went directly to Association for Social and Human Awareness (ASHA) and sought help, and was given immediate refuge and protection, she added.
Abhilasha’s brother and sister-in-law were informed about the legal consequences of committing the crime of child marriage after which they pledged to not force her into marriage. Abhilasha presently is studying in Class 7 and is training to be part of the Jharkhand Under-17 Football team.