A new organization, Prathirodavedi, aimed at fighting for the rights of women and children, has criticised India refusal to sign the United Nations (UN) resolution on early and forced marriage of children.
A meeting of the organisation which was formed at a get-together of representatives of political parties and social activists at the Sports Council Hall here on Monday said that modern civil society irrespective of religion, caste and politics needed to combat underage marriage now plaguing society.
As many as 107 countries supported the global resolution by the UN Human Rights Council that stressed the need to include child, early and forced marriage in post-2015 international development agenda.
However, both India and Bangladesh known for high rates of child marriages declined to support the sign the resolution, V. P. Zuhara, chairperson of Prathirodavedi, said.
She said that demands from different quarters seeking to lower marriageable age of girls had become a serious challenge to democracy. A convention would be organised on Children’s Day on November 14 here to chalk out agitation programmes, she said.
Social activists D.V. Divya, K. Ajitha, Khadeeja Mumtaz, P.M. Athira, Zeentah, Sulfath, Sulochana Wayanad, M.G. Mallika, Lucy Ali Akbar and others participated.
MSF support
The Muslim Students Federation (MSF), the student affiliate of the Indian Union Muslim League, has condemned India’s refusal to support the global resolution against child marriages at the United Nations Human Rights Council. In a press release issue here on Monday the MSF State president T.P.Ashraf Ali and general secretary P.G. Mohammed said that even though India had adopted a legislation against underage marriages in 2006, the country had shamelessly declined to support the UN resolution.
