SAMBALPUR: Officials of the district administration with support of Childline, Sambalpur police foiled a bid to marry off a 15-year-old orphan girl of Daldalipada in Khetrajpur here on Thursday.As per reports, the minor girl's grandmother had fixed her marriage with a 20-year-old youth from Jhansi in Madhya Pradesh.
The engagement of the girl was performed on Thursday morning and the marriage was scheduled in the evening. The parents of the girl had died a couple of years back and she and her younger brother were staying with their grandmother at Daldalipada.Child Development Project Officer (CDPO), Urban, Sambalpur Bijaya Mishra said they reached the house of the girl at Daldalipada after being tipped off about the marriage from Childline staff. After verifying relevant documents, it was found that the girl is a minor, she said.Subsequently, the grandmother was convinced that marrying off a girl below the age of 18 is illegal.
The officials also convinced the youth from Jhansi, identified as Dharmendra, that marrying a girl below the age of 18 is illegal. Khetrajpur IIC Jogesh Panda said no case has been registered in this regard. However, the girl will be produced before the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) on Friday. Director of Childline, Sambalpur Pradip Behera said the CWC will be requested for rehabilitation of the girl and to provide some sort of vocational training so that the minor could be self-reliant.