India. Marriage of the Innocents.
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Although illegal, the custom of child marriage
still survives in India.
That is the tradition. Gandhi himself was married
at 12. That was in 1882… More than a century
later, each year, in remote villages of
Rajasthan, the land of Maharadjahs and all over
India, thousands of children are married during
the Akkah Teej Festival.
In a family the elder daughter is married as soon
as possible. And with her, all her daughters and
cousins at the same time. The same day at the
precise time fixed by the astrologer...