Hindu child marriages do not exist in T&T anymore, secretary general of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha Sat Maharaj said yesterday, as he dared Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi to bring statistics over the past two years to support his case.
Maharaj said society had changed and there were no child brides in T&T over the past two years.
Following a meeting with the heads of 17 religious bodies and civil society groups on Wednesday, Al-Rawi gave statistics that showed 328 Hindu minors, 103 Muslim minors, and 117 other minors were wed under a Christian civil marriage union between 2006 to 2014.
Al-Rawi also showed statistics which revealed an upward trend of sexual offences against females under age 14 and 16, as well as an increase in underage marriages.
However, in a telephone interview yesterday, Maharaj said his information was that between 2014 to 2016, no Hindu children were married in T&T.
Asked to define children, Maharaj said: "Listen... hello, hello! I said we do not have child brides. We may have teenage brides but no child brides."
He reiterated that he was not in support of any changes being made to the Marriage Act which allows Hindu girls to be married from the age of 14.
He also said he was suspicious of a newspaper report yesterday which highlighted the plight of 44-year-old Maria Jadoo-Villafana, who said her whole life was messed up after she was forced to marry under Hindu rites at the age of nine.
Jadoo-Villafana said she met her husband at age five, was married at age nine, pregnant by age 11 and suffered extreme physical abuse at the hands of her husband.
However, Maharaj said he felt the story was a bogus one.
"The custom (of marrying children) has changed since 1945. If you get married, you get married at 14 years and over. When you run a story, why did you not ask who is the pundit? Was he a licensed marriage officer? No credibility," he explained.
He said marrying two teenagers with parental consent had nothing to do with Hinduism.
"There is no Hindu child marriage in T&T. There is Hindu teenage marriage. There are no local pictures to support that child marriage is taking place. They are picking up pictures of this outside of T&T on the Internet."
He added: "In any event, the society is correcting itself and over the last two years we had no such marriage. We are asking the AG for specific figures. Tell us how many Hindu child marriages take place over the last two years. None!
"There was a time when society didn't send girls to school. Today our girls are dominating UWI. Likewise, the society is correcting itself so we don't have children being married."
More varying views on topic
Meanwhile, founder and chairman of Muslim group, Caribbean Hajj, Zabar Mohammed-Baksh, said his organisation was not in favour of child marriages but did not want to get embroiled in a controversy with Maharaj.
"I don't want it to be a Hindu/Muslim conflict. My personal opinion is I consider it an abuse of children to force them into marriage when they are not prepared for marriage," Mohammed-Baksh said.
He added that under Islam women have more rights than men and they should be respected.
"If someone says they don't want to marry, then they should not have to marry. That is not in keeping with Islamic principles and human freedom. It is not something that should be on our legislation. God has given women rights under Islam, but unfortunately because of customs women are exploited," he said.
He added that even in the Muslim world women were robbed of their rights.
Past Trinidad Muslim League president, Dr Nasser Mustapha, meanwhile said according to Islam, "under no condition must someone be coerced into marriage, especially with someone to whom she is not attracted or with whom she is not compatible.
"There are also the spiritual, economic and social dimensions that must be considered," Mustapha added.
He explained: "Is the female physically, physiologically and psychologically prepared to be a mother, wife or homemaker? These conditions are not met in almost all cases in our society. In fact, there are many persons in our society who may not be prepared for marriage even at age 20."
Mustapha said while he did not support a marriage age of 12 years, he believes it "should be permitted in the 1 in 100,000 instances where it may be necessary. The law should reflect the parties' preparedness (physical, emotional, et cetera).
As such, if parties do not meet the requirements marriage should not be allowed. Marriage is a contract with rights and obligations that depend on many variables other than age," he added.