Four child marriage attempts foiled in Tamil Nadu's Krishnagiri

KRISHNAGIRI: Four child marriages were prevented near Kodakarai tribal village in Doddamanju panchayat in Anchetti taluk on Monday. Earlier, on Friday, three marriages had been stopped in the district. Anchetti police constable N Naveedh and a Childline staff M Madhappan saved four girl children after fifteen hours of effort to stop child marriages.

Based on a tip-off, Naveedh and Madhappan started from Anchetti around 10 pm on Sunday and reached the village near Kodakarai inside the forest at midnight near Basaveshwara temple. In the wee hours of Monday, they identified four girls aged 16 (three girls) and 17 (one girl) -- all of them completed class 8 -- who were forced into child marriage and stopped the ceremony.

Sources said, "All three girls are from Doddamanju panchayat in Thalli block and one girl is from Bettamugilalam panchayat in Kelamangalam block. All their weddings were planned near Kodakarai village."

An Extension Officer Padmavathi of the Social Welfare Department, Thalli block said she came to know that only one child marriage was prevented. When asked, District Social Welfare Officer Vijayalakshmi said she was unaware of the incidents.

Child rights activist A Devaneyan said, "There should be convergence between the education department, district child protection unit, social welfare department, police, local bodies and other departments. If these dropped-out children are monitored by the officials, such incidents could have been prevented. More awareness programmes should be raised against child marriage mainly in such hotspot areas."

Krishnagiri Collector Dr V Jaya Chandra Bhanu Reddy said that the district administration will take action on the issue. Ten child marriages have been prevented in the district since last Thursday.