‘I want to study’: 14-year-old alerts officials to avert her child marriage in Telangana

"I want to continue my studies and do a job in future but my parents want to marry me off," said 14-year-old Srija (name changed) when the officials arrived to stop her child marriage. The incident which took place in Geesukonda of the Warangal rural district has once again pointed at the concerns over safe and healthy childhood of girl children during the pandemic.

The 14-year-old girl, according to the officials, was studying in class 9 at a local government run school and her parents decided to get her married to a 30-year-old man. As they wanted to conduct the ceremony without alerting authorities, they took the girl to Nandanayak thanda in Geesukonda from Garlgaddathanda of Rajupet in Narsampet mandal. 

The girl with the help of a friend alerted the Childline (1098) about the wedding which was being held against her will. The Childline officials who received the information alerted the local police, Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), Child Protection Unit and stopped the wedding on Wednesday. 

According to G Nirmala Marry, a representative from the Warangal Rural district Childline, the wedding was stopped at the last moment. She said that the parents and family members were lying to the officials saying that it was just an engagement function. G Niramala said, "The engagement was already done. They were set to marry her to a 30-year-old man. When we reached out, the girl started crying as she wanted to study. We then took her to a state home.”

The girl was later produced before the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), and the CWC instructed the authorities to keep monitoring the girl in view of the incident, and to prevent any further attempts to force her into marriage by the family. The family was given counselling and made to sign an undertaking before the child was sent with the parents.

G Nirmala further added, "The girl is now sent to her residence with her parents, but we have instructed the local officials from ICDS and Anganwadi staff, besides elected representatives, to look after the safety of the girl."

Geesukonda Station House Officer (SHO) Venkateshwarlu has also confirmed to TNM that the wedding attempt has been foiled and due counselling was given against child marriages to the community elders.

As per the official data released by state Women and Child Development department, from April 2020 to March 2021, as many as 1,355 child marriages were foiled. Of these, 72 child marriages were stopped in Warangal rural, 25 in Warangal urban, 22 in neighbouring Janagaon, and 26 in Jayashankar Bhupalpally.

While child marriages are illegal as per the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, scores of child marriage attempts in the state are raising concerns. According to the officials of Childline and Women & Child Development officials, child marriages have risen during the COVID-19 pandemic. Child rights activists say that the number of child marriages which go unreported and unstopped would be high in the remote/interior rural areas.

Read: Young women in Telangana are being forced to drop education for marriage amid pandemic