RAMANATHAPURAM
Childline and Social Welfare department officials had to fight a hostile crowd at Vellampal, a remote village under Sayalkudi police limits, when they tried to rescue a 17-year-old prospective child bride after stopping her marriage, scheduled to be held on Monday morning.
Acting on an alert received through helpline ‘1098,’ a team of officials from Childline, Social Welfare department and Anti-Human Trafficking Wing of the police reached the village around 8.30 a.m. only to face protest from the relatives of the ‘bride’ and bridegroom.
Tension broke out in the village, dominated by an intermediate community, when the officials, after talking to the parents of the prospective bride, a Plus One student in the local government school, and the bridegroom, her relative, tried to bring the girl and her parents to Child Welfare Centre (CWC) for counselling. The bridegroom had by the time ‘escaped.’
Making angry gestures, relatives of the two families surrounded the officials and held them for nearly four hours before local Inspector of Police Vijayakumar and his men ‘rescued’ them after warning the crowd, J. Beski, a member of the Childline team, told The Hindu .
“They protested vehemently for stopping the marriage and prevented us from taking the girl and her parents for counselling,” he said. The situation was hostile and the officials could not conduct any enquiry, he said.
After Inspector Vijayakumar held talks with the people, they allowed the officials to take the parents of the ‘bride’ and bridegroom and a few relatives to the CWC office. They protested against stopping the marriage even after arriving at the CWC office. It was only after Child Welfare Officer Sakunthala explained them the legal implications of child marriage that they gave a written undertaking to conduct the marriage after the girl completed 18 years, he said.
As the girl had expressed the desire to continue her studies, the officials decided to follow up the case through the village administrative officer and Social Welfare department officials, he said.
