Growing awareness against child and minor marriages among the public has helped the authorities in the district rescue several young girls from the evil practice in the recent past.
Acting on a tip-off from the general public, the officials of the District Social Welfare Office (DSWO) and the Revenue Department rescued two girls, aged 15 and 16 years, who were to be married off on Thursday morning.
Revenue Inspector of Tirupattur Babu, on receiving information about the marriage of 15-year-old Rekha (name changed), alerted the extension officer of the DSWO, Tirupattur, G Vijaya on Wednesday night.
“As soon as I received the information, I rushed to the girl’s house at Kalaignar Nagar in Tirupattur town. Inquiries revealed that the bride was a Class X student at a government-aided school in the town,” said Vijaya.
The girl’s parents - Subramani and Kavitha - had arranged her marriage with Selvam (20) of the same area. The marriage was scheduled to be held at a temple in the vicinity on Thursday.
Similarly, officials stopped the marriage of 16-year-old Revathi (name changed) of Chakrakuppam village with a 22-year-old youth from Chennai on Thursday morning at Vanakampadi near Jolarpet. The police had alerted the DSWO about the marriage.
“We dissuaded the family members of the brides and the grooms and explained to them that it was against the law. They agreed to stop the marriage and also gave an undertaking in writing,” Vijaya added.
“These days, young girls and boys are alerting us about such marriages, through various channels. Since January this year, we have stopped 21 such marriages,” District Social Welfare Officer P Gomathi said.
The marriage halls have also been instructed to obtain the birth certificate of the bride before renting out their facility for marriage
“We have also been organising a series of awareness programmes in the schools. The village administrative officers and other Revenue officials have also been instructed to alert us about the child and minor marriages,” Gomathi added further.