Make Nov 1 National Child Marriage Prohibition Day: HELP NGO

Ongole: The secretary of the HELP NGO, Nimmaraju Rammohan Rao announced in a statement that the representatives from the HELP and Girls Advocacy Alliance have submitted representations demanding the prime minister Narendra Modi and Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi to announce November 1 as the National Child Marriage Prohibition Day.

He further explained that the state of Andhra Pradesh occupied second place in the country with 18 percent of the reported cases amongst the states where there are highest prevalence of child marriages in India.

Accordingly, India stood in 5th place in occurrence of child marriages globally and 45percent of the girls are suffering with high risk pregnancy among those victims of child marriage, he said. Most of these victims undergoing abortions and are facing various severe health challenges, he added.

Rammohan announced that the union government has formulated the Prohibition of Child Marriages Act in 2006 and enforced the same on November 1, 2007.

Though the act is introduced more than a decade ago, by keeping in view of the rigorous intensity and rampant prevalence of child marriages, he demanded the government to announce November 1 as the Child Marriage Prohibition Day so that various programmes will be taken up by the government and public organisations to create awareness on the adverse effects of child marriages on girls and families.

He also requested the Government of Andhra Pradesh to take a proactive step to announce November 1 as a special day with regard to the issue of child marriage so as to create robust awareness among general public and systemic stakeholders including line departments and child protection mechanisms.