Women at Gandaththur village outnumber male population. Not because, the village records the highest number of birth of girl babies, but because some of them are still unmarried. The reason (for being unmarried) is, they were not lucky enough to enter wedlock within two years of reaching puberty.
Strange but true, this is the tradition practiced among Beda community at Gandaththur in H D Kote taluk in Mysore district.
Taking serious note of this practice, that amounts to child marriage, the district legal services authority has planned a legal awareness camp in the village on December 31 at 10 am. This follows a recent report that appeared in a section of the media.
Announcing this to the media here on Friday, principal district and sessions court judge H P Sandesh who is also the chairman of the authority said the camp will be attended by officials of almost all departments that could play a collective role in checking the system.Quoting a report on the current status of the village, submitted by deputy director for woman and child welfare N R Vijay, the district judge said: “there are 190 families recording a population of 1,227. Among them, 566 are male and 661 females”.
On the tradition, the district judge said according to elders in Beda community, girls should be married off within two years of attaining puberty. If the girl crosses 15 years, even probable grooms reject them. She has to fend for her whole life working as a housemaid or agricultural labourer. About 40 such girl victims were found when the officer visited the village. A similar tradition is practiced in another 12 villages in the surrounding areas.
Moreover, there are neither high schools nor colleges within a radius of 12 km surrounding the village. So, most girls discontinue education soon after middle school.
Students from Beda community are deprived of higher education at D B Kuppe near to Gandatthur, as most of the institutions refuse to admit them, while students belonging to other tribal communities like jenu kuruba, kaadu kuruba and betta kuruba are favoured by same institutions. He termed it as violation of human rights and also fundamental rights.
The plight of Gandaththur doesn’t end here. It also lacks transportation facilities.
The district judge said he had convened a meeting with the departments concerned. ZP chief executive officer G Satyavathy has promised to start a high school from the next academic year. Similarly KSRTC authorities have promised to run services to the village.A legal awareness camp will also be conducted once every month covering all 12 villages that have been hit by the social malady, the district judge said.He exuded confidence of making the change as the youth of such villages have expressed their willingness to join hands in checking the inhuman practice.
Secretary of the district legal services authority C R Raja Somashekar was also present.
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