2,600 calls from Tamil Nadu to stop child marriages

CHENNAI: Around half of the distress calls to stop child marriages in the past seven months to the national helpline 1098 were from four southern states, reveal statistics. Data received from Childline showed that between January and July, the helpline received more than 14,700 calls — more than 7,500 of which were from Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Karnataka. The states are among the top five in terms of child marriages reported.
According to the data, Tamil Nadu had the third-highest number with 2,666 distress calls, after Karnataka which had 2,737 calls, followed by Telangana (923) and Andhra Pradesh (168). Most calls were from West Bengal (2,962). Comparing the figures with those from the same period last year, showed that while the number of distress calls received from these four states had declined by around 10%, they continued to be among the top five. The number has also declined nationally by around 12% and officials said there was evident decline during the lockdown months starting from April.

A significant number of cases involved children below 16 years of age and more than 50% involved children between 16 and 18.
Experts said increasing awareness about the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (PCMA), 2006, in the southern states, and reporting was the reason behind the high numbers. “Today, 1098 has become a household number, everyone knows about it, starting from children and the elderly. If the children are unable to report, a neighbour might,” said S Christuraj, child rights activist and state coordinator of Samakalvi Iyakkam. He said a combination of reasons such as poverty, lack of education forced parents to marry off their children at an early age. “But figures over the past five years show that people in the south have followed the rules much more effectively than in the north because of several interventions and mechanisms available to curb them,” he said.
Officials from the state child protection unit, however, said the possibility of under-reporting should not be ignored. “Children are stuck at home with families. They might not find a safe place to report these instances,” said a senior official from the unit. The official said due to the lockdown and lack of manpower, they are also finding it difficult to follow up on such cases.