VIJAYAWADA: Worried over child marriages taking place in their region, the mandal parishad of Koyyalagudem in West Godavari district has decided to put in place a 15-day action plan, as part of which awareness campaigns will be taken up for strict implementation of the Prohibition of the Child Marriage Act, 2005. Between March and May this year, five child marriages were performed in Koyyalagudem mandal, according to mandal parishad president Ganjimala Rama Rao. “We proposed an action plan for sincere implementation of the legislations that make child marriages a crime and punishable offence. The proposal was unanimously accepted by 17 other MPTCs and one Zilla parishad territorial member (ZPTC) member,” he said.
The resolution was adopted under the sections 160 and 161 of the Andhra Pradesh Panchayat Raj Act, 1994. Various government and non-government agencies will coordinate to conduct the awareness campaigns.
Sources say 28 child marriages took place in the mandal in two-and-a-half years against nearly 190 (ChildLine data) reported in the erstwhile West Godavari district for the same period. The five such incidents reported between March and May compelled the officials to adopt a resolution to make Koyyalagudem a first-of-its-kind ‘child-marriage free’ mandal.
MPP Rama Rao said as part of the resolution they will work from the ground-level by conducting meetings with parents and stakeholders for 15 days starting June 15, he added. TN Snehan, general secretary of AP State Child Rights’ Forum, stated that mandal parishads across AP must initiate similar steps to eradicate the social evil completely from the State.