In January this year, at a mass marriage in a religious institution in Kalaburagi district of North Karnataka where 100 couples were to tie the knot, age certificates of 75 were issued by the Jewargi taluk health officer just a few days prior to the big day.
But when members of the District Child Welfare Committee (CWC) reached there on a tip-off, they found 35 girls to be minors.
In another mass marriage in Chittapur, organised on Basava Jayanti this year, of the 80 couples who were to enter into wedlock, 10 girls who did not have age proof were hastily issued certificates by the jurisdictional taluk medical officer. He did so at the request of parents, though he is not authorised.
Mass marriages such as these continue to be places where underage children end up in wedlock unnoticed.
Although age certificates are to be issued only by the district surgeon or resident medical officer of a district hospital, on the basis of radiology tests, the rule is being flagrantly violated in mass marriages.
Radiology tests
Following many such reports, the State Health Department recently issued a circular to doctors to compulsorily conduct radiology tests before certifying the age of a person. While this guideline has existed for long, it is followed more in breach.
According to the National Family Health Survey data, although the percentage of child marriages in Karnataka has come down from 41.2 in 2005-2006 to 23.2 in 2015-2016, mass marriages continue to be an area of big concern. Not even a fraction of these are, however, recorded with the Department of Women and Child Development (DWCD). According to DWCD officials, while only one case of child marriage in a mass marriage was recorded in 2015-2016 (in Bengaluru Urban), four cases (of child marriages in mass marriages) were detected in 2016-2017 (one each in Bagalkot and Chamarajanagar and two in Gadag). However, these cases indicate that this may not even be the tip of the iceberg.
In 2015-2016, 5,212 couples tied the knot in mass marriages in Karnataka and 5,963 couples followed in 2016-2017.
Meanwhile, doctors say that even with radiology tests, the exact age of a person cannot be determined.
Tumakuru district surgeon T.A. Veerabhadraiah, a member of the Karnataka Medical Council (KMC), pointed out that radiology tests can only indicate the approximate age of a person. “There is always an approximation of two to five years,” he said.
Explaining the process of medical determination of age, the doctor said that x-rays of knee and elbow joints are done to study the bone age. “We examine the ossification centres, which get fused with age. Apart from a dental check-up, we also do x-rays of the chest and head, if required,” the doctor said. As most taluk hospitals do not even have the required equipment, medical certification of age should be done only in district hospitals, the doctor added.
Nina P. Nayak, former member of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, who also headed the Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, pointed out that during her tenure she had come across many instances of persons undergoing tests not being the same one who is getting married in a mass marriage.
“Several such cases were detected, following which we made it mandatory for the age attestation on a photograph of the person,” she said.
No verification
Stating that a lot of people in rural areas looked forward to tying the knot in a mass marriage as the government gives them an incentive of ₹10,000, Ms. Nayak said: “The organisers have to register with the jurisdictional tahsildar a month in advance so that the age of the couples can be verified. But, there is hardly any verification done. We found this mostly in North Karnataka.”
Vittal Chikani, a social activist and a member of Kalaburagi district Child Welfare Committee, said, “We have noticed how parents managed to get age certificates.”
Kripa Amar Alva, Chairperson of the Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, termed the incidents of child marriages in mass marriages as a major problem, particularly in the backward North Karnataka districts. “We have stopped nearly 200 such marriages in the last few months,” she said.
