Jaipur, July 5 -- Peehu, a 19-year-old girl who got married on Friday at a mass wedding ceremony at the Nari Niketan in Sanganer, Jaipur, said she never saw a happy home in her life, but now hopes to spend a joyous life with her husband and in-laws. "I have never seen a happy home in my life. But now I will have a family and I want nothing but to spend the rest of my life happily with my in-laws," said Peehu (name changed) who fled her home in Bihar's Rohtas when she was just 15-year-old and took shelter at the Nari Niketan in Jaipur. Peehu got married to a Kota-based shopkeeper who applied at the Social Justice and Empowerment Department along with over 1,900 men who had applied to marry the women from the institution. Peehu can't recall her mother who left home when she was just a toddler. "My father used to return home drunk every night and beat me and my mother. My mom left but I had to stay with him. Few years later, he got married to another woman. But my stepmother never loved me either," she said. When she was 15, Peehu's father got her married to a man forcibly. After spending only 10 days with her in-laws, Peehu fled her home and reached Patna station to lodge a police complaint against her father and in-laws. "But no one helped me. Meanwhile, I met a person who told me that I might get a job to survive in Rajasthan. He took me to Jaipur station from where the railway police staff rescued me and sent me to Nari Niketan which became my new home," Peehu said. Like Peehu, around 60 girls got a new life after coming to Nari Niketan where they have been provided with proper education, and vocational training. "After they become adults and are willing to get married, we call for applications. This year, 11 girls including Peehu have been married off by the government in a mass marriage ceremony on Friday," said Reena Sharma, the additional director of the Social Justice and Empowerment Department. Of these 11, two siblings Khushi (18) and Madhu (19) (names changed) have been staying at Nari Niketan for a year after spending their entire life in a child home. "Our parents left us at our home in Jaipur's Jalebi chowk one day and never returned. We have been raised by the staff of these homes, we also do stitching. We told our husbands that we want to continue our education and become interior designers in future," said Khushi. Sharma said, "Most of the girls in Nari Niketan have either been abandoned by their parents, went missing in childhood, or have been rescued by the officials after they faced some violences at home. When they were ready for their marriage, we received about 1,900 profiles. But the job was not easy to find a perfect match for them." According to the officials, a high-level committee led by the district collector of Jaipur and the officials of the social justice department had been set up earlier in January. "After receiving the applications across the state, we referred them to the concerned district officials of the department to conduct a family-survey on each of them and prepare a report. We checked their family background, income status, police record, and also conducted a thorough medical check-up including an HIV test on them. Thus, around 275 profiles had been shortlisted from the districts and have been sent to the committee," said Sharma. Later, the committee interviewed all the shortlisted candidates and selected 15 of them. "Nari Niketan arranged a Swayamvar-like event for these 15 - of whom 11 girls chose their partners. Of these 11 men, 6 are from Jaipur, two from Didwana, and 1 each from Jhunjhunu, Kota, and Baran," she added. Sharma also said that their income is an average of Rs.25,000 to Rs.30,000 monthly. "Some of them are small businessmen and shopkeepers while two are computer operators and one is an advocate." The government also provides an incentive of Rs.21,000 to each of these grooms for marrying these girls under the CM Kanyadan Scheme. "They will also get some other incentives such as a fridge, television and kitchen set-ups etc. The department will also monitor them regularly in future to ensure our girls are fine in their families," said Sharma. On Friday, the entire Nari Niketan was decorated with lights, tents, and flowers while the 11 brides were decked up in bright red lehngas, deep maroon mehndi, and broad smiles. "It's our time now to forget everything in our past, we all will now look ahead and make a bright future precisely," said Peehu....