Panchayat orders marriage of 5-yr-old girl to 8-yr-old boy as punishment to girl’s parents

BHOPAL: The Madhya Pradesh government has warned of an FIR against a whole village of Guna district to save a five-year-old girl from being married off to a 12-year-old boy, following the diktat of the panchayat.The panchayat gave this verdict as a punishment to the girl's father, Jagdish, who had killed a calf three years ago.The incident was reported from Tarapur village under Aron Thehsil, located 70 km from the district headquarters. This village is dominated by Banjara community.Villagers believed that by killing the calf Jagdish incited the wrath of their deity on the entire village. Unless the deity is pacified, no marriage would take place in the area. To "calm" the deity, the village panchayat suggested an age-old tradition be followed - that was to ask Jagdish to marry off his daughter notwithstanding her age.Jagdish agreed and found the groom from his community from the state’s Vidisha district. The groom’s family agreed, too. The matter surfaced after the girl’s mother raised her voice against the diktat and reported the matter to the local administration a week ago.Four people, including the girl’s father, and the "young groom" have been bonded with Rs 20,000 each under Section 107/16 CrPc 1973 — an offence that invites police action in anticipation of possible "breach of peace" against a person.“We have sent different teams to the village to investigate the matter after it was reported in the local media. Once it was conformed that they were pressuring the father to marry off his five-year-old girl to a 12-year-old boy, we initiated action under Section 107/16,” said Niaz Khan, Guna’s additional district magistrate (ADM)."We have said that the whole village will face the music if they try further to get the girl married," he added.The village panchayat had been bothering her father for the last one month. First, they asked villagers to boycott Jagdish and his family. When some of the elderly people intervened, the panchayat asked Jagdish to arrange for a feast inviting all the villagers. The ordeal wasn’t over yet. They persuaded Jagdish to take a holy dip in the Ganga river.Meanwhile, some villagers pointed out that there was no wedding ceremony happening in the village since the calf died despite the fact that there were several marriageable youths in the locality.It was then that the panchayat ordered Jagdish to marry off his five-year-old daughter to pave the way for other girls and boys in the village, said the officer. The panchayat has reportedly asked the family to pay Rs 1 lakh as dowry to the boy’s family.