OneWorld.net (U.S.)

13-year-old Renuka with the help of police thwarted her parents' attempt to get her married last year. But the girl's education is in jeopardy with her parents firm on getting her married.

Dressed in a bride's attire, thirteen year old Doragalla Renuka, stepped into the Toopran police station in Ramaipally (District Medak in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh), to lodge a complaint against a marriage thrust upon her and won freedom, but her fight is far from over.

It was on December 9 last year that Renuka ran away from her home in Venkatayapalli of Toopran mandal and registered a complaint against the bridegroom Errolla Venkatesh and his father Pochayya for forcing her into matrimony against her will.

With Toopran Sub Inspector N. Prabhakar intervening in time the 13-year girl was saved from child marriage. With a stern warning from the police, Renuka's parents half-heartedly took her home and agreed to send her back to the school in Ramaipally.

While the Class VII common exams are fast approaching Renuka has yet another tough test waiting for her as her parents particularly her mother Pentamma is hell bent on getting her daughter married immediately after the examination.

A recent interview of Renuka in a vernacular newspaper on the occasion of World Women's day trigged trouble in Doragalla household.

Pentamma reportedly warned the Ramaipally school headmaster that any more interviews of the Girl and she would be off the school. Renuka's parents who work in a private farm on the National Highway seven have different plans as Renuka will need to shift to another school in Manoharabad to attend Class VIII as Ramaipally has no high schools.

‘I want to study’ Renuka was preparing for her examinations along with her friends at the school headmaster's office.

Scared to speak to this reporter, Renuka sought the help of her teacher Buola who said that Renuka is a good student who helps her two brothers Mahesh and Ganesh in their studies and also takes on the household chores with her mother.

Fortunately for Renuka, help has also come from Nagesh Ramapuram, a senior software engineer, India Invention Centre GE, of Hyderabad who visited the school recently and promised assistance to the girl for her further studies.

Orientation camp Speaking to The Hindu Toopran SI Prabhakar said that he has no reservation in implementing the Child Marriage Restraint Act in its true spirit but felt that awareness among rural folk is the need of the hour.

Recently the Toopran police station organised an orientation programme for more than 100 women from the sub-division.

Source: The Hindu.