The hands of a woman campaigning against child marriage were chopped off by a youth in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, it was reported yesterday.
The incident took place in the Madhya Pradesh town of Dhar Tuesday, an auspicious day in the Hindu calendar for solemnizing marriages, the Telegraph newspaper reported.
The youth knocked on the door of Shakuntala Verma, a supervisor in the state child and welfare department, saying he wanted directions to a house. When Verma stepped out, he chopped her hands off.
Her relatives rushed her to hospital in the nearby town of Indore where the doctors said she was out of danger after undergoing a nine-hour surgery.
The police said Verma was attacked because she had been touring nearby villages discouraging people from marrying under-age children.
Her brother Sushil said she had received threats from some villagers.
Verma had warned villagers that she would scrutinize birth certificates of all new grooms and brides.
Hours after the macabre attack, 50,000 marriages were solemnized in Madhya Pradesh in auspicious hours that come once a year. Weddings can be solemnized during these hours without a priest oveeing the wedding. The state authorities could not say how many of these were child marriages.
The marriage of boys under 21 and girls under 18 is illegal under Indian laws. But the practice of child marriage is still widely prevalent in remote and backward rural areas of the country, especially in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal.
Madhya Pradesh chief minister Babulal Gaur had created a flutter when he ruled out "serious action" against offenders in child marriage cases last week. "Social customs are stronger than laws," he had said.
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
China on Monday announced its first ever sanctions against an individual Japanese lawmaker, targeting China-born Hei Seki for “spreading fallacies” on issues such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and disputed islands, prompting a protest from Tokyo. Beijing has an ongoing spat with Tokyo over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, and considers foreign criticism on sensitive political topics to be acts of interference. Seki, a naturalised Japanese citizen, “spread false information, colluded with Japanese anti-China forces, and wantonly attacked and smeared China”, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Monday. “For his own selfish interests, (Seki)
Argentine President Javier Milei on Sunday vowed to “accelerate” his libertarian reforms after a crushing defeat in Buenos Aires provincial elections. The 54-year-old economist has slashed public spending, dismissed tens of thousands of public employees and led a major deregulation drive since taking office in December 2023. He acknowledged his party’s “clear defeat” by the center-left Peronist movement in the elections to the legislature of Buenos Aires province, the country’s economic powerhouse. A deflated-sounding Milei admitted to unspecified “mistakes” which he vowed to “correct,” but said he would not be swayed “one millimeter” from his reform agenda. “We will deepen and accelerate it,” he
Japan yesterday heralded the coming-of-age of Japanese Prince Hisahito with an elaborate ceremony at the Imperial Palace, where a succession crisis is brewing. The nephew of Japanese Emperor Naruhito, Hisahito received a black silk-and-lacquer crown at the ceremony, which marks the beginning of his royal adult life. “Thank you very much for bestowing the crown today at the coming-of-age ceremony,” Hisahito said. “I will fulfill my duties, being aware of my responsibilities as an adult member of the imperial family.” Although the emperor has a daughter — Princess Aiko — the 23-year-old has been sidelined by the royal family’s male-only
RSS