Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday directed officials to step up measures to make Karnataka child marriage free in the next five years.
He was speaking after launching a campaign against child marriage and an interactive website - KARE - by the Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights to handle complaints involving child rights.
Referring to a national survey that has revealed that 23.2 % of child marriages in India take place in Karnataka, the Chief Minister said: “Although there is a law in place that prohibits child marriages and make sit a punishable offence, it is unfortunate that there is no end to it.”
Although the percentage of child marriages have come down from 41.2 % in 2005 to 23.2 % now, the social menace should be eradicated completely in the next five years, the Chief Minister said.
Based on the recommendations of a core committee headed by the former Supreme Court judge Shivaraj V. Patil, the State Government had approved amendments to Karnataka Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006. The amended Act has now been sent to the Centre, he said.
The proposed amendments that envisage zero tolerance towards any incidence of child marriage are aimed at giving suo motu powers to the police and increasing the penalty.
Child Rights Commission chairperson Kripa Amar Alva called upon people to make use of the interactive website ‘KARE’ to register complaints. The website, that is aimed at quick resolution of cases, notifies the compaints to the concerned department as well as the Child Rights Commission. The unresolved cases will go upto the principal secretary and finally the Chief Minister, she said.
