Whatever Happened To ... The Father Who Wants To Undo The Child Marriage He Set Up?
He forced his 15-year-old daughter to marry a man in his 40s with little education and a reputation for drinking — and knew it was a mistake.
Last August we brought you the story of Lumbaram, a father in a village in Northern India who was on a quest to rescue his daughter Durga from a marriage that he himself had forced her into.
Lumbaram — who like many Indians goes by only one name — had agreed to the wedding six years earlier when Durga was just 15 years old. He had done so at the insistence of his own parents. They were trying to find a wife for one of Lumbaram's brothers. And because women are scarce in their community, Lumbaram's parents made a trade with another family: That family pledged a girl to marry Lumbaram's brother, and Lumbaram gave up Durga to marry one of the men on their side.
Such swaps are common in the region, as are child
