Child Marriage to Teacher of Children

Uma Barui

Child marriage is not acceptable by the law of our country as well as by the educated society but it is still prevalent in various parts of the country. The reason is lack of knowledge, poor economy and lack of education.  

Uma Barui, a daughter of Sundarban’s Sagardeep block is another victim of such early marriages. Her father was a poor landless labour of scheduled caste community in Rudranagar Gram Panchayat area. Being the eldest child, her father got her married early at the age of 16 years. When other girls of her age were planning to go to good colleges, Uma had to plan her marriage. The poor father of Uma was not able to support her studies after class X. He just wanted to get her married to a good family so that he can plan for his other children.

At 16, Uma started her marital life with a man of coastal fishing community, who had to support a family of 7 members. Her husband was also an agricultural labour, who used to spray fertilisers in the field. They could hardly start their conjugal life when the hell broke on Uma. While working in the field, a bag full of fertilisers fell on her husband’s shoulder and he immediately broke down. The spinal cord got distorted and he got bedridden. Their economic condition was not strong enough to support good treatment for this poor man. Uma tried her level best to support her husband in this crisis and went door to door to seek help for his treatment. But, his recovery was almost impossible.

At this juncture, SEED also started its intervention in Sagar Island’s Rudranagar GP. As Uma was already seeking help from everywhere, she approached SEED to help in her husband’s recovery. Dr. Kalayan Acharya of SEED came forward offering his helping hand. He gave his best to recover her husband and offered free treatment for almost 6 months. But, he was already in comma and was not responding to any treatment. Uma’s husband finally lost his struggle with life and passed away after one year of this incident. The girl, who was keeping hope against hope, finally lost all her hope and took the life of widow. Everyone in the village sympathised her but they blamed her bad luck for this.

Uma with her second husband

SEED volunteers and some community development members in the 

village came with an idea to give her a new life. They thought of getting her remarried to her husband’s younger brother. She was just 17 and it would have been very tough if she had to live the life of a widow for the rest of her life. But, in a village where people have their set social mind set, it was not easy to convince all for this widow remarriage. However, Panchayat representative Manoj Barui took initiative to approach the elder members of the community to convince for this almost impossible task. After days of meetings and discussion, all of them agreed considering her young age and her father’s poor financial and social status. Her in-laws also agreed as she was very humble and sweet in nature.

So, within two months of her husband’s death, Uma was remarried again and that too in the same family.

Uma teaching the kids 

But, that was not the solution as her new husband was also agricultural labour and was not able to earn enough to support his whole family. This is when SEED approached Uma and her family and offered to train her in teaching as she was educated enough to teach small children. SEED was running a non-formal school, where they needed a teacher, who could support another existing teacher. So, Uma was trained in teaching at Loreto Day School in Kolkata and joined the school in her village as a regular teacher. She is now getting Rs. 5,500 every month and is the highest earning member in the family. She has a daughter with her second husband who comes with her in the school.

Now, Uma is 23 and a self-made woman, who balances her family and professional life very efficiently. Apart from teaching in the school, she offers her service for the community development. She encourages girls in her village to go to school regularly and advises parents to not marry their daughters at early age like her. She knows the evils of child marriage and importance of education so does not want another Uma to suffer like her.