Two child marriages were averted in the district on Tuesday night amid protest from the family members.
Chairman of Rural Organisation for Poverty Eradication Services (ROPES) Childline K. Dhanasekharan said that at Kattakindapalle of Punganur mandal, a migrant family was about to perform the marriage of a 16-year-old girl with a daily wager from Karnataka, Gangadhar (22), at a local temple when the ROPES team rushed there and averted it with the help of police and revenue officials.
After counselling, the parents were made to execute an undertaking that they would desist from performing the girl’s marriage till she attained the age of 18.
School dropout
A school dropout, the girl would be imparted training in tailoring.
In the second incident, another migrant family from Kuppamgaripalle of Chittoor rural was getting ready to perform the marriage of a 13-year-old girl, studying in Class 7, at Gangasagaram on the Vellore Road.
The girl was produced before the ICDS officials at Chittoor and later handed over to her parents after obtaining an undertaking that she would be sent to school and her marriage would not be performed till she attained 18.
Perennial problem
In spite of the steps taken up by the district administration to stop child marriages, the trend continues in several villages in the western mandals of the district.
In the last three years, the Childline alone averted over 250 such marriages in Chittoor rural, Bangarupalem, Palamaner, Gangavaram, Baireddipalle, Punganur, and Madanapalle mandals. In the tribal hamlets of western mandals, several mothers are aged below 18.
