“I had visited the Government General Hospitals (GGHs) in Vijayawada and Guntur recently and noticed many minor girls admitted in the maternity wards. The situation explains the rampant child marriages in the State,” says A.P. Women’s Commission Chairperson Nannapaneni Rajakumari.
In some cases, the mothers were aged 16 or even below, and the health condition of both the mother and the infant was not good, she said.
In a survey taken up by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) and an NGO, Young Lives India, it was revealed that 1,71,083 girls and 1,72,934 boys had been married off in Andhra Pradesh in the last five years before they attained the marriageable age of 18 and 21 respectively.
Krishna district stood first in child marriages with 20,584 girls (3.3%) and 19,557 boys (2.4%) getting married before they became majors, the NCPCR members said at a State-level consultation on child marriages recently.
“I had interacted with a few mothers who were below 18 years at the GGH in Vijayawada. According to them, they were married a couple of years ago. Some were mothers of two children by the time they attained 17 years, and their lives were pathetic. Child marriages are rampant in the middle, lower, and a few high class families,” Ms. Rajakumari observed.
In some cases, love affairs were leading to child marriages, particularly in the rural areas.
“The mahila commission has been receiving many cases pertaining to child marriage, illegal affairs, and separation, in which both the boy and the girl are below the marriageable age. The commission is planning to launch a campaign against child marriages and explain the parents and the girls the ill-effects of early marriages and the laws,” she told The Hindu .
Women Development and Child Welfare (WD&CW) Krishna district Project Director (PD) K. Krishna Kumari said Child Marriage Prohibition Officers were appointed and steps being taken for strict implementation of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006.
