Seven child marriages prevented in Kolhapur and Sangli

KOLHAPUR: As many as seven child marriages — five from Kolhapur and two from Sangli district — were prevented after the intervention by the authorities during the lockdown period in April and May.
The parents have been warned against such acts and the village-level committees have asked them to not make such attempts or else they will face serious action including imprisonment.
According to the data from the women and child development department and childline centres of both the districts, the child marriages were going to take place due to the economic distress the families have been facing.
B G Katkar, Kolhapur district women and child development officer said, “In the past years, one or two such attempts were reported in a month but this year the number is higher. Economic problems were the primary reason in the child marriage cases reported in the district.”
“We have provided counselling to the parents informing them about the disadvantages of marrying off a girl child. We have appealed to the local teams to be more vigilant in the coming days,” the officer said.
The complaints are made to 1098 childline number. The team carrying out the action of preventing the child marriages said that the girls are around the age of 16 while the grooms are between 23 to 27 years old.
One of the team coordinators requesting anonymity said, “Usually, the parents justify such acts by saying that they cannot look after the girl child once they leave for work as they suspect that their daughter might elope. However, we ultimately find that the girls are not ready for marriage and are forced to hide the truth. We warn the parents and a complaint is lodged by the village coordinators with local police station.”
Another coordinator, on the condition of anonymity, said, “The sex ratio is skewed (more number of boys than girls) in rural parts. We have observed that the parents of the grooms are also responsible for such acts.”