Indian child bride, now 19, faces $25,000 fine for rejecting marriage...

The family of a 19-year-old Indian girl has been ostracised and fined 1.6 million rupees ($25,000) by a village council after she rejected a marriage arranged when she was a baby, the girl and her parents said on Wednesday.

Santadevi Meghwal, from the western desert state of Rajasthan, said she was married off at 11 months old to a nine-year-old boy in her village, 60 km (37 miles) south of Jodhpur.

Meghwal became aware of her marriage at the age 16 and, with the support of her parents, refused to go and live with her husband and in-laws as they demanded.

"I was 11 months old when I was married off. It was only when I grew up that I realised what had happened," Meghwal told the CNN-IBN television station on Wednesday. "I want to study and become a teacher. I don't want to go there," she added.

Meghwal's family said her husband's family refused to annul the marriage and took the matter to the council in Rohichan Khurd village, which imposed the fine and banished the family from the community. Full story...

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