Kerala town prefers early marriage over education

DRACONIAN LAWS: In Mallapuram's marriage market young, uneducated girls are preffered over educated ones.

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Mallapuram (Kerala): KT Shahana's center has over 100 girl students learning computer skills. The center is a labor of love that now bearing fruit and what makes Shahana's achievement special is that she herself is plus two drop out.

"I was married off while I was studying in the Class 10 and I had to discontinue while in plus two. My husband had left for the Gulf and I was left alone at home with my children," says she.

Across Mallapuram, the hot-bed of Muslim conservatism in Kerala, there are hundreds and perhaps thousands of Shahanas waiting in the wings. Unlike the older generation that looked towards Gulf economy for a career, the new generation of Muslims want to build their dreams here, in their own state in Kerala.

Principal Farook College, Professor U Mohammed says, "There was a time when they would just go out make some money and come back. But when they realised that without proper education they would get only some menial work even outside, they understood it was important to teach their children. Even here at Farook college, it took 12 years to get the first women students, because the Muslim clergy was against modern education then. Now, we have more girl students in our college than boys."

It's beyond doubt that Muslims of Mallapuram have now started believing in the power of modern education. But to make a radical change in the lives of the people here, you need more than just belief.

A mother of a six-year-old, Shakeela was married off at the tender age of 13 while she was sudying in Class 8 in a local school. Soon her husband left her and married again. Today she is struggling to make ends meet.

"It was never my choice to become a mother so early in life. I couldn't understand all this at that time but now I know that I have lost my chance to even complete my studies and with that my future has also died off. I only hope that no other girl in Mallapuram gets a life like mine," says Shakeela.

Many feel that Shakeela is an example of the draconian marriage market that prevails in Mallapuram where young, uneducated girls are preffered over educated ones.

Social Activist, Aryadhan Shoukat says, "In this locality there are many 30-year-old grandmothers. A girl who is married at 13 or 14 has a child at 15 and will marry her child off also at the age of 15. So what change are we talking about? Even if you get a distinction in your Class 10 exam, mothers here are happy to send their daughters to their husband's bedrooms than to a class room."

Sadly in Mallapuram, for every Shahana who has successfully become an entrepreneur, there is a Shakeela who is still struggling to cope. Modern education may be an attractive option, but early marriage is still the destiny of most young Muslim women in this sleepy town.