Booking priests, white washing house in Rajasthan? You could be arrested
1/5
'No' Balika Vadhu
In order to put a full stop on child marriages, Bundi administration of Rajasthan has made it mandatory to print date of birth of groom and bride and a statutory warning that child marriage is punishable ahead of the Akshaya Tritiya festival that sees many children being married off every year.
The festival falls on May 7 this year and many children are secretly married off on this day in Rajasthan.
Reuters
2/5
No whitewashing, no heena
The district administration has constituted teams of school principals, land record inspectors, gram sevak, anganwadi workers and 'satheen' to keep an eye over various activities in their area like whitewashing in homes, henna on children's palm, absence of children from school, playing of band, booking of priests and vehicles.
Reuters
3/5
What a track
India has the 6th highest incidence of child marriages. According to the 2011 Census, 51.6 lakh girls in India were married before they celebrated their 18th birthday, as against just 23.8 lakh boys who said 'I do' before they turned 21.
Rajasthan tops the list when it comes to child marriages of both girls and boys — with 2.65% of all child marriages in case of girls and 4.9% of all child marriages in case of boys.
BCCL
4/5
Non-bailable offence
The Child Marriage Restraint Act, first passed in 1929 in India, fixed the age for marriage at 14 for girls and 18 for boys. This was amended in 1978 when the minimum age for marriage was raised to 18, for girls and 21, for boys.
This act was replaced in 2006 with the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, which made it a non-bailable offence.
BCCL
5/5
No stone untouched
Not to be left out, tent house owners and light decoration suppliers too have been asked to display the same statutory warning — violation of which needs to be reported forthwith to the district authorities and the police.
