Despite tip-off, Raichur administration fails to prevent child marriage

A 15-year old girl was married to a man twice her age even though Raichur Deputy Commissioner and Superintendent of Police were alerted four days before the ceremony

In an apparent case of negligence and dereliction of duty, the Raichur district administration failed to prevent a child marriage even after having been alerted well in advance.

As a result, a 15-year-old girl was married to a man aged 32 years at Devanapalli village in Raichur taluk on the morning of April 15.

Raichur Deputy Commissioner Avinash Menon Rajendran, Superintendent of Police Nikhil B. and other senior officers in the district were alerted about the unlawful ceremony on April 11. They were also given all the relevant information apart from the wedding invitation.

The girl is a class 9 student in the government-run Morarji Desai Residential School on the outskirts of Raichur.

On April 12, local functionaries from the Child Development Project Office (CDPO) in Gillesugur visited the girl’s family and asked her parents not to get their daughter married before she competes 18 years. They even obtained a written undertaking from the girl’s father to get his daughter married only after she completes 18 years. In the undertaking he signed along with four witnesses, he also expressed his readiness to face legal action if he failed to keep his word under provisions of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006, as amended in 2016.

“I will send the CDPO to verify the facts pertaining to the alleged child marriage. If the parents have got their minor daughter married even after giving a written undertaking, we will lodge a police complaint and see that an FIR is registered against all the people responsible for the marriage under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act. We will then hand over the girl to Children Welfare Committee (CWC), a quasi-judicial body, which will keep the girl in the State-run Balamandir and offer counselling,” Veeranagouda, Deputy Director of Women and Child Development, told The Hindu.

Mangala Hegde, Chairperson of Child Welfare Committee, said that she would ask the officers concerned to rescue the girl and then start the legal action. “We will first rescue the girl and keep her in the State-run Balamandir. We will counsel the girl. Legal proceedings would be imitated against all those responsible for the child marriage,” she told The Hindu.