NGO to campaign against child marriages in city

Pune: Nirman Bahuudeshiya Vikas Sanstha, which has been working for the welfare of nomadic tribes for the last 11 years, has been working across Maharashtra to stop child marriages for the last two years.

Speaking to the media about their efforts, Founder Member of Nirman Vaishali Bhandwalkar said, “In rural India, girls are still considered to be a burden on the parents and are married off at a young age. The parents don’t feel the need to educate the girl and don’t want to spend much on it. They also feel that if their girl develops a relationship with a boy from some other caste, it will hamper the character of the girl. 

The nomadic tribes are not allowed inside the village, therefore the girls are prone to attacks from the village boys, so marrying her off is seen as a solution to prevent her from the attacks.”

“We, at Nirman, aim to educate the people about the ill-practice that child marriage is. We have stopped around 20 marriages in Pimpri-Chinchwad and Pune alone. About 19.4 per cent of girls in Pune are married off at the age of 10 to 17 years. We are conducting a campaign against child marriage in Pune from November 1 to 25 and demanding the government to enact a strict law against child marriage,” added Bhandwalkar.