Girl forced into marriage, jumps from moving train

15-year-old was wedded to man double her age, husband agrees to divorce her later

Passengers and others at Babatpur railway station on Varanasi-Lucknow section of the northern railway were shocked when they saw a 15-year-old girl jumping on the platform from a moving train.

They thought she wanted to commit suicide. But it later turned out that she was a ‘balika vadhu’ and had jumped to save her life.

According to reports, Sakina (name changed), a resident of Varanasi district was married to a man more than double her age.

Her husband and in-laws were taking her to their native place in Saharanpur district by train. As she did not want to go with them she jumped out of the train as soon as it started moving after a brief stoppage at Babatpur railway station on Saturday.

Sakina said she with her mother had gone to visit her mausi (mother’s sister) in Jharkhand a few days back. “My mother and mausi forced me to marry a man who is more than double my age,” she told the people, who had assembled at the station.

She said her husband Salim and her mother-in-law and herself had boarded a train for Saharanpur on Friday. The train has scheduled stoppage at Babatpur. The girl’s native village is barely a few kilometres away from the station.

Her mother-in-law and husband also reached there after the train came to a halt after they pulled the chain. They insisted on taking her but she refused. The locals also supported the girl.

The girl’s father also arrived there a later on being informed and the hubby was made to divorce her. Police were also called. But no case was registered as the matter had been amicably settled, sources said.

Incidents of minor girls being married to men many years older than them have been received in the past also from different parts of the state.

Many a times, poor parents also get their minor daughters married with older men for money.