by Meena Tiwari

The rate of child marriage is decreasing at the national level but has increased in 10 Districts of Bihar. Bihar is second in the country in dowry death cases.

On 22 December 2021, the Chief Minister started his much publicized Samaj Sudhar (social reform) Yatra from Champaran. 16 years in power is not a short time for a Chief Minister, but the NITI Aayog report shows that Bihar remains the most backward and poor state of the country in 2021. NCRB and NFHS data also shows dismal data for Bihar on child marriage and dowry deaths. Can the 'evil practices’' that Nitish Kumar claims he wants to remove be eradicated merely through cultural events and sermons without hitting at the economic-political foundations on which these evils are based?

In one of the meetings during his Samaj Sudhar Yatra, Nitish Kumar claimed that social reform in Bihar started with his prohibition law and campaign. The communists spoke of women's freedom 'Stree Mukti' in Bihar, which created an awakening among the women of  Bihar in the 1980-90s. During that period, there were tremendous movements against domestic violence against women, rape on women by powerful people and 'owners', against violence and on the question of fair and equal wages. Even in Bihar, the phenomenon of women from middle-class farmer families reaching the booths to vote was visible only in the election of '89, when the IPF campaigned by linking voting rights with individual rights. Nitish Kumar may have trouble accepting the achievements of this movement, but why is he even denying the social upheaval created by the '74 movement? Influenced by JP's slogan of Sampurna Kranti (total revolution), a large number of young boys and girls broke the shackles of caste and religion during that period and launched a movement for dowry free life-partnerships based on equality. Is Nitish Kumar perhaps making a ridiculous attempt to make himself appear bigger than JP?

Nitish ji raised the following three questions in every meeting: prohibition, child marriage and the dowry system. His hypocrisy on prohibition became even clearer when BJP Minister Ramsurat Rai was not only present on the dais at Muzaffarpur but also addressed the meeting. This is the same person from whose school hundreds of litres of liquor were recovered during the assembly elections. Despite an FIR being registered, no action has been taken against him so far. Not only this, in the midst of all the tall talk on de-addiction the drug business has spread rapidly in Bihar in the last few years and adolescent children and youth  Bihar are rapidly being caught in its trap. However, I confine myself here to discussing the Chief Minister's attitude to child marriage and dowry.

Child marriage should not be acceptable in any civilized society. The sooner our society is freed from this, the better. But from our own experience we know that child marriage is no longer prevalent in urban middle class families. Girls from these families want to study; school and college facilities are available here and parents have the required money, so they give their daughters the opportunity to study. The meaning is clear:  the improved living conditions of the people have contributed more to ending child marriage than has the child marriage prevention law. In other words, poverty and lack of access to education are one of the reasons for child marriage. According to the National Family Health Survey data, child marriage was 45% in 2005-2006; the Compulsory Education Act for children up to 14 years of age was passed in 2009, increasing the emphasis on access to school for children at the central level, and the rate of child marriage declined in 2015-16 to 26. 8%. In 2020 it further went down to 23.3%. Now compare the figures of Bihar with these figures. When the national average of child marriage was 26.8%, the rate of child marriage in Bihar was 42.5% and when the national average was 23.3%, it was 40.8% in Bihar. In Bihar also the rate of child marriage declined but it was a very slow decline because access for girls to school and college was also growing at a very slow rate. While India's literacy rate was 77% in 2021, Bihar is at the bottom at 61.8%. 92.7% of women are literate in Kerala and 53.33% in Bihar. Marriages below the age of 18 are more common in rural areas and especially in poor families. Statistics show that 75% of child marriages occur in the poorest families of the population, where girls growing up do not get a chance to progress in life. When both the parents work as labourers to earn daily wages, the girls are responsible for taking care of the kitchen and younger siblings. After a few years this need also comes to an end and the parents marry off their daughters in order to be free of the burden of caring for them. Statistics show that Bihar has the highest number of malnourished children under the age of 5 years and comes second in the age group of 5 to 14 years. 42.9% of children in this age group are malnourished. Where there is such a dire lack of food, parents think that they should at least get daughters married so that there are fewer mouths to feed.

The rate of decline in child marriage in Bihar is very slow as compared to the national average but there is a serious warning that now the reverse process has started in Bihar. Child marriage has increased in 10 Districts of Bihar. These districts are Bhagalpur, Banka, Purnea, Saharsa, Araria, Katihar, Kishanganj, Lakhisarai, East Champaran, and Darbhanga (Hindustan report on December 14). The child marriage rate in Bhagalpur has increased by 1½ times from 29.60% 42.4%.

These are the backward and poor Districts of Bihar which have suffered the devastation of migration and floods. Trafficking of women is also high from most of these Districts. Although incidents of blackmail and rape for the business of making pornographic videos have increased all over Bihar, there is no systematic data available for trafficking; but reports show that the incidents of trafficking in Bihar have increased rapidly. Within the last few months, 277 human traffickers have been arrested, 121 women have been freed including 58 adults and 53 minor girls (The Hindu, 12 Jan 22). If so many cases have been reported, we can only imagine how frightening the real picture is. No means of education, lack of food and concern for the safety of the growing daughters: these are the three important reasons for the continuation of child marriage in Bihar, on which Nitish ji is silent! Therefore we have raised some important demands.

The age limit for right to compulsory education should be increased from 14 years to 18 years. Education should be made free for girls from KG to PG and there should be provision for nutrition and employment.

Now, for a discussion on Nitish Kumar's anti-dowry campaign; the Anti-Dowry Act was enacted in India in 1961, in which both taking and giving dowry were declared crimes. In the '80s, when incidents of death due to stove burst and sari pallu catching fire in the kitchen started making headlines, women's organizations launched major agitations against dowry harassment and murder, which was followed by the dowry law was amended in 1983. The sections of the IPC relating to suicide and violence were also amended and 498A was added. A law against domestic violence was enacted in 2005. However, 498A was amended during the Modi regime, saying that women are misusing it and making false cases to implicate in-laws.

Despite these attempts continuing for the last 60 years, the problem of dowry system remains in the country. Here also, Bihar is ahead! According to the NCRB report, Bihar ranks second in the country with 1046 cases of dowry deaths in 2020. The dowry system is a very complex and cruel problem in India’s patriarchal society, but the Chief Minister is taking this serious problem lightly. During his meetings he declares that he will not attend dowry weddings. He appeals to the officials and common people to do the same. Jeevika women are made to sing anti-dowry songs. Instructions have been given to the Women Development Corporation of Bihar, on the basis of which the corporation will run a campaign for people to declare on wedding invitations that now dowry has been given or received. While acknowledging the importance of cultural campaigns, I want to say that there is nothing new in these efforts by the government. There have been many such attempts in the '80s-'90s. But despite these efforts the dowry system did not end. If dowry has over time become a status symbol and a mark of honour, then it is necessary to talk about the basic reasons for this.

Government advertisement hoardings 'Bahu Nahi Beti Ghar Layen' (Bring home a daughter, not a daughter-in-law) are visible on the streets of Patna; meaning, there should not be any distinction between daughter and daughter-in-law. That is good, but be it daughter or daughter-in-law, does our society give either of them the right to the status of ‘human being’? Are daughters given their democratic rights? Dowry is given by the father of the girl and taken by the father of the boy. What does the girl get in this? It is true that the dowry system is deadly for poor families as they do not have any accumulated wealth. For the marriage of the daughter, they have to cut down on their needs, take a loan and then get caught in the debt trap. (In many such families these days a girl who has reached the age of marriage is allowed to take up a job so that it helps in raising the amount of dowry) But in the middle class or wealthy propertied families, land or other immovable property is kept safe for the sons. Assessment of the property kept safe for sons and the dowry given to daughters and comparing the two in terms of worth will make clear the reason for the existence of the dowry system. If a simple legal system and social environment is created to make it mandatory for girls to get equal rights in the father's property, then instead of collecting dowry for the daughter, parents will start focusing on making her educated and self-sufficient like the sons. Nevertheless, as cultural changes do not happen overnight the dowry system may continue for a few years even after giving a share of the property to an educated self-sufficient daughter. But it will not remain in the form of compulsion to give dowry but as a show of ostentation.

The dowry system will be hit hardest when girls marry of their own free will or inter-caste inter-religious love marriages take place. Property rights of a daughter or her right to marry of her own free will are both issues that, if so much as touched, will create a storm in the patriarchal and feudal system of Bihar, for which Nitish Kumar lacks the courage. Any attempt by a girl in Bihari society to exercise these rights, and all talk of pampering daughters are scattered to the winds and her own father and brother start behaving like enemies.

For some years after independence, it was not easy for governments to disregard the ideals and values of the independence movement and during that period governments encouraged those who broke inter-caste or inter-religion bonds to to get married. Today the Hindutva forces keep looking for opportunities to harass them everywhere and the government is under their control. If Nitish Kumar had stood in favour of progressive values for the constitutionally guaranteed rights of girls struggling against the increasing domination of government-protected feudalist, Hindutva forces, something could have been said in his favour.

In recent years, when girls are becoming educated and self-reliant and want to live the life of their own choice, they face the same atrocities not only in their in-laws' house but also in their father's house. Here I would like to talk about some cases which have come to AIPWA. Some years ago a girl came to AIPWA for help.  The girl's father had died and her brothers were making attempts so that their educated and self-reliant sister should be married off as quickly as possible and with as little expense as possible, so that the ancestral property could remain completely in the possession of the brothers. On the other hand the girl said, give my share in the property and through that I will manage my own dowry for a good and suitable match. In another case, a girl wanted to take up painting and sculpture as her profession. She wanted to get her share in her ancestral house and land so that she could open her own workshop. Her father was alive but he was in favour of his sons and the sons wanted the sister to be excluded from the ancestral property. For this purpose, the brothers, their wives and their wives’ brothers engaged in violence and even beat up girl. The girl continued fighting the battle, from police station to the courts. AIPWA activists did everything to help, from medical aid to arranging bail. Eventually the girl took possession of her share of the land and the house. In many such cases in recent times, we have seen that girls are coming forward demanding their rights in the father's house; whereas earlier, cases used to come (they still come) where girls facing harassment at the in-laws’ place or thrown out of the  in-laws’ house used to contact AIPWA through their father or brothers. The concern of the father or family members was that the daughter should somehow be settled in the in-laws' house. In the case of a very kind and caring father, he would say 'As long as we are there, we will take care of the married daughter, but after us she will depend on her brother and sister-in-law and God knows how they will treat her'. If the woman evicted from her in-laws' has children, there is even more anxiety that the in-laws should accept her and treat her well. Such fathers never think even for a moment that their daughters also have a right to a share in the property they are leaving to their sons.

The human rights of Hindu women were so important to Dr. Ambedkar that he worked tirelessly to enact the Hindu Code Bill and guarantee equal rights to women in the Constitution. Angered by the decision of the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to break this code under pressure from conservatives, he resigned from the Union Cabinet; and on the other hand we have our Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who is embracing these same Hindutva forces. The DGP of Bihar instructs parents, from the same platform from which he makes speeches on social reforms, to keep an eye on the girls going to school and college and stop them from marrying for love. There is a saying that both laughing out loud and puffing out one’s cheeks cannot be done simultaneously. That's why Nitish Kumar cannot solve women's problems on the one hand and retain patriarchy on the other. Social reform seems to be a veil under which he wants to escape the basic issues facing of Bihar and save his ‘kursi’ (seat of power) which is tied to the apron strings of the BJP.