Jaipur: Last year, as the Covid-19 pandemic raged across the world, 20-year-old Vineeta Meena’s dream of becoming a police officer seemed all but lost. Meena, a resident of Gokalpur village in Sapotra Block of Karauli district in Rajasthan was suddenly at home trying to thwart the repeated attempts of her parents to marry her off.
“In March 2020, owing to the lockdown, I had to stop my coaching for competitive examinations and stay at home. I thought after some time everything will be normal and I will able to continue. But I was wrong. The pandemic had not only changed our lifestyle but also the priorities of our parents. My parents started desperately looking for a groom for me and my younger sister”, said Vineeta Meena.
According to media reports the risk of child marriages has heightened as a result of the pandemic’s economic fallout, as vulnerable households are forced to adopt coping mechanisms. Without alternative sources of income they reduce their expenditure by reducing the size of the family and marrying off their child early.
For Vineeta the only choice, if she was to fulfil her professional ambitions, was to resist the pressure to get married. It didn’t take long to realise that she was not the only one facing this problem. There were many other girls of her age whose ambitions were on the verge of being dashed by the pandemic, which had made their parents more eager to marry them off at a very young age.
The girls felt there was need for a platform where they can raise their voice and opinions and eventually convince their parents to delay their weddings. Following this, in October 2020, a group of ten girls started a door-to-door campaign for raising awareness about education for girls and to put up strong resistance to child marriage in Karauli district.
Karauli is one of the four districts of Rajasthan identified by the NITI Aayog in 2018 for its ‘inspirational districts’ programme, meant for districts that show poor performance in health, nutrition, agriculture and education sectors. A 2018 report by the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights, placed Karauli among the top 100 districts in the country with the highest prevalence of child marriage.
According to UNICEF each year, at least 1.5 million girls under 18 get married in India, which makes it home to the largest number of child brides in the world – accounting for a third of the global total. Nearly 16 per cent adolescent girls aged 15-19 are currently married.
While the prevalence of girls getting married before age 18 has declined from 47 per cent to 27 per cent between 2005 and 2016 the Covid pandemic seems to have reversed some of the progress on this front.
One of the major achievements of the organization set up by Vineeta and other girls, called the Dalit Adivasi Pichda Varg Kishori Shiksha Abhiyan, is that they have managed to start a public discussion on child marriage and also prevent them in some cases.
“We started meeting at home, Anganwadi centres, in the park, on a terrace, under the tree – to discuss the issues adolescent girls faced such as an excess of chores, inability to devote time to education, marriage pressure and mental pressure. We slowly started moving from one village to another and visited houses, schools and even colleges. In the beginning, around 100 girls mobilized two girls each in 50 villages, who in turn mobilized 10-15 more girls in their villages.
“We were able to continue the movement and it started becoming bigger” says Vineeta, who successfully managed to delay her own wedding by convincing her parents.
“Marriages of adolescent girls in Dalit and Adivasi communities in Karauli district is not something new. But during Covid-19 we got to hear about more such incidences where parents even got their two daughters married on the same day owing to job losses, no work and poor financial conditions. In this situation there is a massive need for such movements to fight the notion that girls are a burden”, said Bablu Meena, principal at the Senior secondary school at Gajju Pura Village, block Sapotra in Karauli.
Currently, Vineeta’s group, which is part of the ‘Rajasthan Rising’ movement, is 1240 girls strong in Karauli and has also reached nearby districts Alwar, Tonk, Bundi and Ajmer. The goals of the group include timely scholarships to all eligible girls for secondary education, no child labour, no child marriage, and fighting gender discrimination in society and institutions.
“The marriages of adolescent girls can be reduced only if the government gives them financial assistance to study during the pandemic, in addition to the existing scholarship, which is only Rs 3,000 per annum”, says Bablu Meena, who also holds the post of Panchayat Education Officer at the Gajju Pura Village,.
Another key mover behind the Rajasthan Rising movement is Priyanka Bairwa, a student of BA second-year student from a Dalit family, who wants to bring change in society by spreading awareness about girls education.
“Since I was in class 10th I have faced the pressure of getting married. My father had lost his job, and my mother worked as a house help and I used to assist her. I could feel the discrimination in society towards me being considered of ‘lower caste’. The houses where I used to work would serve me tea in a disposable cup and even tell me to sit on the floor. Slowly I realized that education is the only thing that can erase the prevailing discrimination. Hence despite our bad financial conditions, I continued to study and even got enrolled in a college”, says Priyanka, who hails from Ramathra Village, two kilometres away from Sapotra Block in Karauli.
There was pressure from her family during the pandemic to get married, but she wanted to complete her graduation. After learning about similar cases in her area she started Rajasthan Rising with advice and assistance from the Alwar Mewar Institute of Education and Development (AMIED), an NGO working in the rural areas of Rajasthan.
“This is a big movement where girls from the tribal community have learned leadership skills. They formed physical, as well as WhatsApp groups, which created pressure on parents in the district. They also sent 100 emails to Rajasthan Chief minister Ashok Gehlot. The emails have their stories and concerns as well as their demands, which includes spread of girls education, more scholarships for tribal girls and other demands”, said Noor Mohammad, founder member of AMIED.
Through this movement, girls in this entire region of Rajasthan have become socially and politically aware with enhanced agency and voice. The girls have also knocked on the doors of the village sarpanches in the area and the MLA from Karauli, to get support from their elected representatives.
“There should not only be an increase in the scholarship amount for girls from Adivasi and Dalit communities but the disbursal of the amount should be done at the beginning of the session so that the family does not have to think twice before paying their fees. The tribal girls also reached out to us for help and demanded to make education free till secondary school as many were forced to leave their schools” said Abhishek Meena, Sarpanch of Salempur Gram Panchayat.
“The movement helped us to know each other’s issues. Now I think I am not alone, but part of a group where girls get together and share our problems and come up with solutions” says Priyanka.
Tabeenah Anjum is a journalist and a visual storyteller based in Rajasthan.
The Dalits are subjugated by the Brahmins and terrorised by the Kshatriyas !
What is the Genesis of the Hate of the Dalits by the Kshatriyas ?
The Kshatriyas are the offspring of the INDIAN WOMEN who were raped,pillaged and killed by the Mughals,Turks,Huns.White Huns,Persians,Patthinians, Greeks,Mongols, Chinese,Mughals, Afghans,and the Abyssinians.The trash so born was discarded by the Huns etc. and left to rot in India
The British and Mughals knew all about the DNA of these rats,as they read history, and so they easily co-opted these K Shit Riyas to join their military and terrorise the population of India.
The K-Shit-Riyas never cared for the Dalits and Dasyus – they thrived by instilling fear and exercising domination, to gloss over their pathetic history epitomised as kayar,namard, nipunsaks – and so,they were glad to serve the Mughals and the British – who whitewashed their history,, violated their women and cooked up stories about their martial valour Of course, the Brahmins used these K-Shit-Riyas to kill and exterminate the Buddhists,
as also,to pit Vaishnavites and Saivites against each other
For that, they concocted bull shit lies – such as Agni Kula and Suryavanshi and Chandravanshi Rajputs. All lies to gloss over the fact that they were sons of whores and rats and cowards, with the impotent DNA of a Brahmim
Then we come to the Mahabharata
As per the Mahabharata, Kshatriyas were born, when Kshatriya women (on heat) “were raped by Brahmins”, w/o marriage and hence, were “born as a bastard race” with the “zero IQ and potency of Brahmins” and the “cowardice, treachery and chicanery of the Brahmins”
SECTION LXIV – Mahbharata– Adivansavatarana Parva ·
The son of Jamadagni (Parasurama), after twenty-one times making the earth bereft of Kshatriyas wended to that best of mountains Mahendra and there began his ascetic penances. And at that time when the earth was bereft of Kshatriyas, the Kshatriya ladies, “desirous of offspring”, used to come, O monarch, to the Brahmanas and Brahmanas of rigid vows had connection with them during the womanly season alone, but never, O king, lustfully and out of season.
And Kshatriya ladies by “thousands conceived from such connection” with Brahmanas
SOME EXAMPLES OF KSHATRIYA HISTORY AND GENEAOLOGY ! dindooohindoo
Jats
The Hindoo Bindoo claim that Jats are born from the “Jata of Shankar”
Jats are proven to be of “Central Asian/Scythian Origin”, and were “basically pirates,bandits and mercenaries”.
Their only claim to fame is the “sacking of the TajMahal”, which they looted and pillaged, and made their own Jai Mahal, and their “digging up and defiling” of the “grave and bones”, of Akbar (by dragging the bones out)
Rajputs
“The word “Rajput” is used in certain parts of Rajasthan to denote the illegitimate sons of a Kshatriya chief or Jagirdar.” [Mahajan Vidya Dhar,”Ancient India”, Fifth Edition, Reprint 1972, Chand and Co., New Delhi. p. 550 ff.])
This explains Rajput history – QED !
Sikhs
A race pillaged the Dindoo Brahmins and Dogra rat Rajputs, who had their Gurus killed due to Dindoo Hindoos and whose Golden Temple was under the Control of Brahmins with Hindoo Idols in it (till around early 1900s).Their Constantine – Ranjit achieved his victory only due to the American and French Generals – running his artillery and cavalry !
After the death of Ranjit Singh his wife and sons were killed by the Dogra Rats
Yadavs
As per the Gita, Lord Krishna considered Yadav’s to be “a curse on the planet and tried to exterminate all the Yadavs”
When Krsna had killed the demons, and thus relieved the burden of the earth, he thought, ‘The earth is stilloverburdened by the unbearably burdensome race of the Yadus. No one else can overcome them, since theyare under my protection.’ … Deluded by Krsna’s power of delusion, and cursed by the Brahmins, they were all destroyed, and when his entire family had been destroyed, Krsna said, ‘The burden has been removed.’ ” — Srimad Bhagavatam 10:90:27-44; 11:1:1-4; 11:30:1-25
As per the Mahabharata, after Krishna was killed, “his wives were raped and molested by Robbers”, and the “offspring so born”, were called Yadavs
Mahabharata, Book 16: Mausala Parva: Section 7
The concourse was very large. The robbers assailed it at different points. Arjuna tried his best to protect it, “but could not succeed”. In the very sight of all the warriors, many “foremost of ladies were dragged away, while others went away with the robbers of their own accord” .
Those Mlecchas, however, O Janamejaya, in the very sight of Partha, retreated,”taking away” with them, many “foremost ladies” of the Vrishnis and Andhakas
This explains Yadav history – QED !