Shamli/Muzaffarnagar, December 28
Only three months ago, Gulshana was nurturing golden dreams about her future. Though not formally educated — like most Muslim girls in western UP — she had convinced her father about enrolling herself in a technical course and doing the family proud.

Little did she know that the riots of September 7 and 8 would not just shatter her dreams but reverse the course of her life forever.

“I got married on October 28. There was a mass wedding in the camp. All the young girls were married off,” says Gulshana whose father claims she is 18 years old though she looks much younger. There’s no proof of her age or that of 51 other girls who were part of the mass wedding ceremony at Malakpur relief camp of Shamli district a month after Jat-Muslim clashes erupted in the area. Similar ceremonies happened across all 30 existing camps as the Muzaffarnagar and Shamli riots triggered a wave of fear

after several women were allegedly raped and assaulted during clashes.

Over 200 such weddings have reportedly taken place after the riots with families saying marrying off beautiful daughters seemed a better prospect that guarding them in these times of distress.

“We had no option but to marry off our daughters to save their honour. We saw our women being brutally assaulted. So we decided to marry off the younger girls in the family. It was a difficult but important decision to take,” says Mohd Raees, Gulshana’s father.

Parents of all newly wedded girls -- many of whom appear to be children -- cited similar reasons. Deeper probe revealed there were other reasons too behind this wedding wave. Initial triggers came from news that all newlyweds would get Rs 1 lakh each from the state administration. This later turned out to be a rumour.

Haji Dilshad, manager of the Malakpur camp, who arranged a Maulana for the “nikaah” says the Jamait Ulema Hind in the post-riot days had announced they would gift Rs 15,000 to every girl who gets married.

“Many parents came forward to wed off their girls and we decided to facilitate a mass wedding in which around 50 girls participated. The boys come from nearby areas. There was never any offer of Rs 1 lakh,” Dilshad says. Sadly, things didn’t go as planned for the families of young brides. In many cases although the cheques of Rs 15,000 were issued in the names of girls, they couldn’t cash these because they couldn’t open bank accounts.