Alleging that girls from their community were being lured into marriage for gain, by boys from other castes, members of the Kongu Vellala Goundergal Peravai took an oath against inter-caste marriages here on Sunday.
President of the Peravai R. Manikandan said men from other castes were marrying their girls for the sake of acquiring a share of the family property before abandoning or divorcing them.
“Though this kind of cheating has been going on for the past 10 years, the last two years has witnessed a huge increase in such marriages. This year alone there have been 936 such marriages in the Kongu region. Out of these, almost 816 marriages have broken within 15 days to two months. Girls from our community who go to colleges are being pursued by boys from other castes. Without realising their intention, these girls enter into the institution of marriage without the consent of their parents,” he said.
Once the man, through coercion, gets his wife’s share from her family, he either abandoned or divorced her, he added.
Since most of the marriages were happening to girls who went to college, Mr. Manikandan said that if this continued, they would be forced to curtail the education of the girls only till school.
Maintaining that the oath taking event was to protect their girls from such marriages, Mr. Manikandan said such events would be held in other parts of the region as well. Already, two were held in Karur and Namakkal earlier during the year.
The Peravai was planning to conduct anti inter-caste marriage convention in Tirupur in 2014 to bring more focus to the issue.
Activists removed
Meanwhile, the City Police on Sunday removed nearly 20 activists belonging to Dravidar Viduthalai Kazhagam and other outfits for staging a demonstration against Kongu Vellala Goundergal Peravai for opposing inter-caste marriages.
Tamil and Dravidian outfits had given a call for an agitation opposing the move to consolidate people against inter-caste marriages.
Even as the cadre started marching towards the marriage hall on Tiruchi Road, the police intercepted and removed them.
However, the cadres resisting police removal took a vow to support, promote and facilitate inter-caste marriages, which according to them was a tool for ensuring social equality and to end caste-based discrimination.
