Minister for Social Welfare and Women Empowerment P. Geetha Jeevan on Thursday launched an awareness campaign against child marriage at Gundalpatty village in Kaveripattinam.
The month-long campaign in the district will work to create awareness against child marriages and the dangers of teenage pregnancies, she said.
Gundalpatty village witnessed highest number of child marriages, she said. “I was told there was a case of maternal death in Krishnagiri last week, the baby was saved but the mother died,” said the Minister. That is why it is important that women are not burdened with motherhood at a young age, she said.
Pointing out that no child marriage can happen without the knowledge of the local panchayat heads, Ms. Jeevan insisted that the public and the local bodies alerted the officials to stop the marriage. The dream was to turn Tamil Nadu into a child-marriage free State in the country, the Minister said.
To a query that poverty and distress migration was forcing families to marry off their underage girls, Ms. Jeevan said the awareness campaign aimed to provide solutions. The campaign underlines the importance of education as the solution and “if you can’t educate, let us give them a place to stay and learn, instead of marrying them off,” said the Minister.
There are Social Welfare Department-run hostels to enable girls of locals migrating for work to complete their education, she said.
To another query on the often lax response and coordination between various departments in stopping child marriages, Ms. Jeevan said, the District Child Protection Officer has been given a vehicle and the coordination between the departments, including the police, will be worked out.
