The Child Welfare Committee, entrusted with the daunting task of rescuing distressed children, will work closely with schools to stop child marriages in Prakasam district, especially in rural areas, according to its newly-appointed Chairperson G. Bharati.
Teenage girls in many cases succumb to ‘emotional blackmail’ by parents who for a variety of reasons. “We will focus our energies on going to schools to impress upon schoolgirls not to fall prey to pressure from elders,” Ms. Bharati, who runs an alternative school for tribals and others in remote Kambaladinne village, says in a conversation with The Hindu .
Pressure from elders
Ms. Bharati, whose Siri Society works with tribal girls in distress in and around Pamur observes, that girls are under constant pressure from family members to drop out of school and coerced to marry their cousins or uncles to avoid paying huge dowry in case of marriage with a person outside the family. The parents are under the wrong impression that the girl will be well protected if she is married to a relative, but in several cases this has been proved wrong, adds CWC member B. Padmavati.
The CWC chairperson, vested with powers of a first class judicial magistrate, feels that she can now work with greater vigour to facilitate the hapless girls continue their education and acquire necessary life skills to face the world with confidence.
