Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): A 12-year-old girl has approached Bhopal District Family Court, seeking maintenance from her father. Her parents have remarried after divorce and the girl is living with her 71-year-old maternal grandmother (nani).
The marriage of the parents of Usha (assumed name) was an arranged one. She was born a year after their marriage. The father did not want a girl and blamed her mother for giving birth to a daughter. He drove out wife and daughter from his home.
At the time, Usha was just three. Usha’s mother took shelter at her parent’s home and lived there for five years. Her brothers took care of the two. In this period, Usha’s parents got a divorce and her father remarried. Four years later, Usha’s mother also remarried.
Her new husband refused to accept Usha, who was left in the care of her maternal grandmother. Meanwhile, Usha’s maternal uncles started living separately from their mother. Nani and the eight-year-old Usha were now left alone.
Since then, Usha’s Nani has been somehow taking care of her. Usha, who studies in a private school, has moved court, demanding that his father pay maintenance for meeting her expenses. The father, who is a businessman, was summoned by the court and the case was referred to the counselling centre.
Usha’s father, who has a son with his second wife, told the counsellor Sarita Rajani who is dealing with the case, that he won’t pay a penny. “I have my own family to look after,” he said, adding that “as the custody of Usha was given to her mother at the time of divorce, he was not liable to look after her.”
Usha’s mother, who too has children with her second husband, is also unwilling to take her responsibility. “I tried to convince Usha’s father that he cannot make his daughter suffer for no fault of hers. But he won’t listen,” Rajani said, adding that “the case was a grim reminder that the preference for a male child was still very strong in our society.”
