Hassan Deputy Commissioner R. Girish has instructed officers tostop child marriages in the district. He gave this direction at a meeting held in Hassan on Thursday.
Mr. Girish said parents and other family members, responsible for child marriages, should be booked under relevant laws. Enough care should be taken to protect children forced to get married at an early age.
There were reports of child marriages in the district during the COVID-19 lockdown. Since April 2020, there were 132 complaints of child marriages in the district. The officers stopped 90 of them and filed 32 cases.
Mr. Girish also told the officers to identity children who lost their parents owing to the pandemic and provide them with a monthly pay of ₹3,500 for their studies. The caretakers at children’s homes run by the government should take care of their health and undergo a COVID-19 test once in 15 days, even if they did not have symptoms.
Additional SP B.N. Nandini, District Health Officer K.H. Sathish Kumar, Deputy Director of Women and Child Development K.G. Dileep and others were present at the meeting.
