CHENNAI: With child marriages still prevalent in parts of
Tiruvallur district where girls are forced to marry much older men against their will, many of them are choosing to elope with a partner of their choice. At least 40 teenaged girls have gone missing from their houses this year alone in the district, say police.
Senior counsel and social activist V Kannadasan said child marriages are common on the outskirts of Tiruvallur district along the border with Andhra Pradesh. Girls are usually asked to enter wedlock with an older man or become the second wife of a relative to avoid cutting them off from the family, said S Jebaraj, who runs an NGO and works closely for these young school dropouts.
Kannadasan said he has visited several schools in Tiruvallur and north Chennai where many girls get married by the age of 16, during their schooling. “The girls don’t get any support from their families to complete their education. Many families are coolies and decide to marry off the girls when they are still studying, just to avoid feeding one more member in the family,” said Kannadasan.
These girls stop going to school after marriage as they are forced to take care of their newly married husband and his family too. “Many girls choose a partner of their own age from the neighbourhood and elope with them to avoid being forced into wedlock by their family members,” he added.
The girls’ families sometimes choose to swallow their pride and give their blessings to the union. “In several cases, the family members have agreed to the marriage of the young couple if they are from the same community,” said Kannadasan.
The lawyer said that such incidents have also been witnessed in parts of north Chennai like
Vyasarpadi,
Thiruvottiyur and
Ernavur. However, child marriages have been curtailed in these neighbourhoods after repeated counselling for young girls at government-run schools here, he added.
Representative image