VIRUDHUNAGAR: Just a day after officials from the district Social Welfare Department, Anti-Human Trafficking Wing and members of Childline (1098) stopped four marriages of minors, six more such marriages were halted on Friday.
Totally, marriages of 10 minors were stopped in two days. This is the second incident of police officials engaged in stopping such marriages within nine months.
Sources said a 17-year-old girl Meena (name changed), a resident of a village near Sattur and currently studying in Plus-Two, was to be married off to Maheshkumar, who worked as a police constable at Rajapalayam. The marriage was set to take place on June 1.
In another incident, the parents of a 17-year-old girl Ramya (name changed) of Sattur arranged her marriage to Subbudurai, a construction worker.
Similarly, the parents of a 15-year-old girl Menaka (name changed) near Sattur, who has completed 10 standard and staying at home, was to be married off to Srinivasan, a daily wage labourer, also on June 1.
At Sattur, the parents of a 16-year-old girl Jothi (name changed) arranged a marriage for her on June 1.
After the officials were tipped off about the marriages, they went to the houses of the minor girls and stopped the marriage arrangements immediately and got a written statement from the parents of the minor girls that they would not organising their marriages till they attained the right age. The officials also stopped two other marriages of a 16-year-old girl at Srivilliputhur and a 14-year-old girl at Sivakasi.
Meanwhile, in Puducherry, the marriage of a 17-year-old girl from Karikalampakkam in rural Puducherry was stopped by the joint efforts of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) and police. As the girl’s father, a daily wage earner, was seriously ill, her mother arranged the marriage. The girl, a 12th standard student of Bahour Government Higher Secondary School, was to be married off to her maternal uncle residing in Chennai. The wedding was scheduled to be solemnised on Sunday.