12-yr-old helps sibling recover from malnutrition

By Anil Gulati, Shivpuri, May 18 : Premwati, a 12 year old girl, feels elated and smiles when asked about her sister whom she carried in her lap. She had helped her younger sibling Anushka recover from severe malnutrition. Premwati lives in Bamera Panchayat of Shivpuri district of Madhya Pradesh.

Her sister Anushka was a year old when she was unwell and was suffering with severe acute malnutrition. NGO ASHA worker Ramswarupi Lodhi, during her rounds in May 2009 to their house, found the kid to be underweight and was in stage of severe acute malnutrition.

ASHA worker advised her parents that the child should be referred to the nearest Nutritional Rehabilitation centre for treatment and care. She briefed her parents, who are agricultural labourers, and urged them to take the little one for treatment.

Though her parents wanted to treat her, but they were worried about their other 5 children.

They were dependent on their daily earnings for bread. They could not afford to stay with the child at NRC for 14 days leaving their work.

It was then her sister Premwati took it upon herself and expressed her eagerness to stay with the little one at NRC and look after her.

Though she had to take time out of her school, a place where she loves to go, but in her own words, it was worth for her little sister. She stayed with her younger sibling was at NRC in Shivpuri district for 14 days.

Nutritional Rehabilitation Centre is centre for treatment and care of severe acute malnourished children. Madhya Pradesh has 202 such centres including this one at Shivpuri.

They are being run under National Rural Health Mission with support from State Government. Staff at NRC and ASHA worker fondly remembers how punctual Prenwati was with her sister meals, medicine.

She was loved by all NRC staff during her stay. After her stay at NRC, district team did follow the child at her home. Whenever team used to come to follow up, Premwati used to make sure that they see her sister.

Premwati studies in school now and not only vows to study further but wants to make sure that her sister too goes to schoolwhen she grows up.

Recently UNICEF team from UNICEF office for Madhya Pradesh visited her at her village; she smiled with her sister in her lap while people of her village proudly talked about her to the visiting team.

One breaks free, but child marriages go on in Madhya Pradesh

By Sanjay Sharma, Bhopal, May 14 (IANS) : All hell broke loose at Vanita's house when she refused to tie the knot before completing her studies. She was not even 18, the legal age for women to get married in India, pointed out the spunky Dalit girl.

It took people by surprise in Madhya Pradesh where every second girl is married off before she reaches marriageable age. Many of these weddings take place on the festival of Akshya Tritiya, which falls on Sunday.

Vanita, 17, who lives in a settlement for the poor in Bhopal, last week threatened to go to police when, after returning from school one day, she was told by her younger sister that she was about to be married off to a middle-aged man from Rajasthan.

Though her parents seem to have relented for now, she is not sure about the future stance of her drunkard father.

"I am still afraid that anyone can brainwash my father and he would insist on my marriage once again," says Vanita who has sought the support of the NGO Sarokar which works with girls on issues like child marriage and gender bias.

Vanita, who wants to be a policewoman after completing her studies, has also equipped herself with knowledge as to how to approach the police if any further pressure comes.

As many as 53 percent girls are believed to get married under the age of 18 years in the state while the national average is 47.4 percent, says a report of the National Family Health Survey.

The figure for Bihar is 69 percent, Rajasthan 65.2 percent, Jharkhand 62.3 percent and Uttar Pradesh 58.6 percent, the survey says.  In Madhya Pradesh districts like Barwani, Sehore, Neemach, Chhatarpur, Mandsaur, Rajgarh, Shajapur, Sheopur and Shivpuri, more than 40 percent of girls are married before attaining the legal age, according to the findings of a district-level household survey carried out by the International Institute of Population Studies on behalf of the central government.

Though the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, bars the marriage of a girl aged below 18 years and a man below 21, the problem persists, with a majority of child marriages being performed on occasions like Akshay Trithya.

Madhya Pradesh's Women and Child Development Department has issued directives to its joint directors and district level development officers to upstream their efforts and prevent child marriages.

They are being supported by organisations like the Child Rights Observatory, an independent child rights monitoring body in Madhya Pradesh.

"Child marriage is a violation of a child's right. We are raising the issue with the state and will also support it in preventing the same," says Nirmala Buch, Child Rights Observatory president.

"Early marriage has profound physical, intellectual, psychological and emotional impact, cutting off educational opportunity and chances of individual development and growth for both boys and girls," Tania Goldner, chief of the Unicef office for Madhya Pradesh, told IANS.

"The consequences for girls are especially dire, as they are usually compelled into early childbearing which results in associated health risks and social isolation," she says.

"Child brides will frequently drop out of school and be exposed to higher risk of domestic violence and abuse, increased economic dependence, denial of decision-making power and inequality at home, which further perpetuate discrimination against and the low status of girls and women," she adds.