A girl saved her 17-year-old sister from minor marriage that was scheduled to be held at Tirupattur on Wednesday. Acting swiftly, the officials attached to the Revenue and District Social Welfare departments along with police stopped the marriage on the eve of the ceremony.
Nandhitha (alias) Shalini (17), who had just passed the plus 2 public examinations, was forced to marry the same man whom her elder sister was forced to marry him against her wishes, and ran away from her home.
Earlier, Shalini’s parents, Ganesh and Lakshmi of Erode, had fixed the marriage for their elder daughter Renuka Devi (20), a second year college student, with Bharani (alias) Loganathan (27) of Tirupattur, who ran a jewellery shop. The marriage was fixed against Devi’s wishes and was scheduled to take place on Wednesday at the AGS Marriage Hall in Tirupattur town.
However, Devi ran away from her house on Sunday night. “The girl along with her parents and relatives had visited the groom’s house three days before the marriage as per customs. After they returned home, she sneaked out the house in the night,” said Bharathi, special sub-inspector of police (SSI) of the All Women Police Station (AWPS), Tirupattur.
Shocked over this, the bride’s and groom’s families decided to go ahead with the marriage by changing the bride. Devi’s parents forced their younger daughter Shalini (17) to marry Barani, to save their family from embarrassment. “Shalini’s parents emotionally blackmailed her that they would commit suicide if she did not agree to the marriage, to get rid of a bad name to their family. Left with no choice, the girl agreed for the marriage,” said P Gomathi, district social welfare officer (DSWO).
Devi, who came to know about the developments through her friends, wrote a letter to Vellore Collector P Sankar, pleading to save her sister from the marriage that she was being forced into. “The letter landed here on Tuesday afternoon and we received the information about the marriage from the Collector’s office,” the DSWO added further.
The officials of DSWO alerted their extension officer, Tirupattur, Vijaya. She, with the help of the revenue and the police department officials stopped the marriage. The police did not file a case under the Prevention of Child Marriage as the two families agreed to stop the marriage.
“The parents of girl and boy agreed to call off the marriage after we explained to them that the marriage was against the Child Marriage Act. They also gave their statements in written,” the SSI, Bharathi said.
She added that both the families left the marriage hall after handing over the food prepared for reception, to an orphanage.
“We will send a report to the Collector in this regard,” the SSI said.