BADIN - The speakers of the event held on Thursday at Tando Bago participated by large number of citizens underlined the need of the awareness of Sindh Hindu Marriage Act 2016. Such laws help discouraging forced conversion of Hindu girls and streamline the Hindu community after their marriages, they added.
They said that before the act, it was difficult for married Hindu women to prove that they were married which was considered one of the key tool for miscreants involved in forced conversion and other misdemeanors.
They maintained that Hindu marriage act ensures that parties for a marriage are of 18 years of age or above and also parties are able to give consent and the marriage act assured that at least two witnesses are present at the time of the solemnisation and registration of the marriage.
Every marriage being solemnised under the act will be registered with the concerned union council or ward govt authorities within 45 days, they added and told that proof of the marriage would offer greater protection to Hindu women, once marriage are registered, they have certain rights and these would be ensured.
They said Hindu women are facing hurdles and disadvantages being unable to prove their marriages to their husbands before the law and institutes in order to gain govt welfare funds and benefits.
Adding the speakers apprised that the act grants Hindu community the right to divorce and women the additional right to do so on grounds of negligence or having been married in their early ages.
In the absence of a law on marriage, speakers explained that Hindu women, particularly in the rural part of Sindh province, were being targets of abductions, rape, and forced conversions and unlawful marriages and Hindu women faced problems in proving the legitimacy of their relationships before the law.