#endchildmarriages

Child marriages are becoming a frequent occurrence in India but the story of 8 year old Fatima Mangre has to be the most traumatic one to date.

Fatima Mangre was married off by her father, Anil, at the tender age of 4, to Arjun Bakridi, who was 10 years old at the time of marriage.

Now at the age of 8, Fatima's in-laws have come to take her from her parents so she can live with her husband, now 14 years old. However, her father refused and insisted that they wait until she was 18. This upset Arjun's father and because he did not comply with Anil's wishes, Anil filed for divorce on behalf of his daughter.

Anil stated that he "finally realised the practice of marrying off daughters so young was wrong and that she (Fatima) should have a childhood, and it is my (Anil) duty to provide that."

Although Anil realised that what he did was wrong, the state government has called for an inquiry into the incident after the National Commission for Women (NCW) demanded details of the divorce and threatened action against the parents of the girl and the boy. They wanted to know why the girl's father married her off at 4 and why the boy's father agreed to such a thing and then went to get the girl when she was only 8 years old.