Rampant child marriages and the inability of the district administration to tackle the problem has caught the attention of United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), which is now determined to join hands with NGOs and other Governmental agencies to curb the menace.
With 10,000 marriages performed every year in the district, 4,000 are child marriages. At least eight mandals in the district are notorious for such practice which is prevalent among the SC, ST and BCs.
As the problem continues to elude solution, UNICEF in partnership with local NGOs plans to set a network with legal backing besides taking up advocacy lobbying in a big way.
According to M.S. Chandra, Director, CARPED & Childline, the Medak district registers about 10,000 marriages every year and about 4,000 of them are child marriages in which the average age group of girl child was assessed as 15.5 years.
It was decided that networking should be done at different levels such as district, State and national level. At the same time legal and networking and advocacy lobbying support will be extended.
Reasons cited for child marriages include the villages located in interior areas, high illiteracy rate among the population, marriages within the families and poverty. Efforts by the officials or police to book the offenders meet with resistance as political interference makes the officers helpless. In certain cases, the victims – the girl children – turn hostile and refuse to cooperate with the investigating officers or the NGO’s, who want to highlight the issue. At a recent National consultation on prevention of child marriage in India- by HAQ: Centre for Child Rights in New Delhi, participants wanted amendments to the Child Marriages Prevention Act 2006 and making it applicable to all religions without any exception/expectation.
They proposed setting up of special homes for the victims of child marriage and providing education and accommodation for them till they are properly trained in life skills for settle in life. Funds were sought from the State and Central Governments to control child marriages. An important suggestion was networking all government and non-government organizations working against child marriages across the nation.
Reputed organisation such as NCPCR, UNICEF, Terre des Hommes, Ford Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Childline and ILS Law College participated in the consultation to find a way out to curb the menace.
Threat to childhood
*Mandals where the practice is widely prevalent are Shivampet, Kowdipally, Hatnoora, Narsapur, Narayanakhed, Nyalakal, Sadashivapet and Peddashankarampet.
*SCs, STs and Golla Mudiraj and Gouda in BC communities perform such marriages in rural areas.
*Families being poor financially, perform marriages in the name of family custom and tradition.
*Low level of awareness among parents.
*Child marriages increase Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) and Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR)
*Collector in charge for protecting child marriages and he is assisted by Child Marriage Prohibition Officer, Revenue Divisional Officer, Child Development Protection Officer, ICDA supervisors and grassroots revenue staff.
*Information not reaching in time from field level to higher officials to react
*Police provides protection to officials trying to stop child marriages
*Lack of coordination between the departments and proper mechanism to arrest these marriages
