ChildLine stalls 3 child marriages in Ranga Reddy dist

The ChildLine campaign had paid good dividends in rural Telangana and helped the administration to stop three child marriages at Karpol village in Medak district.

M.S. Chandra, Director, ChildLine, received information about the proposed marriages in a village near SangaReddy in RR district and rushed to the spot. They were aghast to find how the parents of 9th Standard girl along with two other girls studying in Class X were made to sit for traditional weddings. The villagers and the girls’ parents had made all arrangements to perform marriage ceremony when the ChildLine authorities and police officials reached the spot.

The ChildLine staff held counseling for the parents of would be brides and warned that they have to face legal and also social problems if they perform the marriages. A written statement was also taken from the parents that the marriages would not be performed till the girls’ attained right age i.e. 18 years old.

It also appeared that the girls were not keen to marry but were forced by their elders and also villagers into the wedlock with grooms of their choice (not the girls) following the soothsayers counseling in region that such child weddings will bring good luck and prosperity to the village.