Forty family members shave heads in purification ritual after tribal woman marries outside caste
Rayagada: In a bizarre incident that highlights the social prejudices still prevalent in rural Odisha, forty members of a tribal woman’s family shaved their heads as part of a purification ritual after she married a man from a different caste in Rayagada district.
The incident took place at Baiganaguda village under Gorakhpur panchayat in Rayagada’s Kashipur block. The ritual also involved sacrificing goats, chickens and pigs in front of the local deity, as reported by The New Indian Express on Saturday.
The woman, in her early twenties, was reportedly in a love relationship with a young man of SC community and they decided to get married. However, their families opposed the union as the man was not a tribal. Despite the opposition, the couple tied the knot.
As per the woman's family custom, if a girl marries outside the tribe, the entire family faces the wrath of the village deity. In case of any violation of the tradition, the family and their relatives must undergo a purification ritual to be accepted into the community, the report added.
Accordingly, the woman’s family members and relatives tonsured their heads and arranged a grand feast for villagers after sacrificing goats, pigs and chickens.
Meanwhile, the district administration directed the block development officer (BDO) of Kashipur to probe the incident after a video of the ritual went viral on social media.
“The team members met the couple’s families who explained that they observed the ritual as per their custom without any compulsion,” TNIE quoted BDO Bijay Soe as saying.
He added the incident has been placed before the higher-ups for consideration of government assistance for the inter-caste marriage.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Allahabad HC sets aside maintenance order in favour of earning wife, says she didn't tell truth
Prayagraj (PTI): The Allahabad High Court has set aside a lower court order mandating a man to pay maintenance to his estranged wife, observing that she earns her living and did not reveal the true salary in her affidavit.
Justice Madan Pal Singh also allowed a criminal revision petition filed by the man, Ankit Saha.
"A perusal of the impugned judgment indicates that in the affidavit filed before the trial court, the opposite party herself admitted that she is a post-graduate and a web designer by qualification. She is working as a senior sales coordinator in a company and getting a salary of Rs 34,000 per month," the court said in the December 3 order.
"But in her cross-examination, she has admitted that she was earning Rs 36,000 per month. Such an amount for a wife who has no other liability cannot be said to be meagre; whereas the man has the responsibility of maintaining his aged parents and other social obligations," it observed.
The high court observed that the woman was not entitled to get any maintenance from her husband "as she is an earning lady and able to maintain herself".
The man's counsel argued in court that the estranged wife did not reveal the whole truth in the affidavit.
"She claimed herself to be an illiterate and unemployed woman. When the document filed by the man was shown to her before the trial court, she admitted her income during cross-examination. Thus, it is clear that she did not come before the trial court with clean hands," the counsel submitted.
The court, in its order, said, "Cases of those litigants who have no regard for the truth and those who indulge in suppressing material facts need to be thrown out of the court."
It impugned the lower court's February 17 judgment and order, passed by the principal judge of a family court in Gautam Buddh Nagar and allowed the criminal revision petition filed by the man.
