Although child marriage is banned, 1,71,083 girls and 1,72,934 boys were married off in the last five years in Andhra Pradesh before they reached the marriageable age.
Krishna district tops the Statewide list of child marriages with 20,584 girls (3.3% of the girls) and 19,557 boys (2.4% of boys) getting married before attaining 18 and 21 years of age.
Visakhapatnam district came second with marriage of 16,876 girls below 18, followed by Anantapur (16,738), Kurnool (16,532) and Chittoor (15,769), according to an analysis on the incidence and intensity of child marriages at the national, State and district levels, by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) in collaboration with Young Lives India.
The data was presented at a State-level consultation on child marriages held here on Thursday.
Likewise, 20,462 boys below 21 years were married in Kurnool, followed by 17,322 in Visakhapatnam and 16,939 in Anantapur.
India in 11th place
India stood 11th in the worldwide rank of countries with high incidence of child marriages, accounting for a high 47% of all children. Nigeria is in the first place with 68%.
As many as 39,000 minor girls are being married every day in India, said the NCPCR and YLI collaborative study.
Many attempts foiled
The Andhra Pradesh Women and Child Welfare, Police and Revenue departments have been taking many steps to prevent child marriages.
In all, 2,322 child marriages were foiled in the last three years by these departments and about 25 cases booked under the Prohibition of Child Marriages Act, 2006.
