HYDERABAD: More than six per cent of the child marriages reported across the country from 2018 to 2020 were from Telangana, according to the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWCD).
Of the 1,809 child marriages reported in the country during the three-year period, Arunachal Pradesh topped the list with 341 child marriage cases, followed by West Bengal (236), Karnataka (217) and Tami Nadu (190), while Telangana was fifth on the list with 119.
The State has also witnessed a rise in such cases over the period. While there were 24 reported cases of child marriage in the State in 2018, it grew to 35 in 2019 and 60 in 2020.
According to the information revealed by the MoWCD in the Rajya Sabha, the number of child marriage cases registered under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (PCMA) for the years 2018, 2019 and 2020 are 501, 523 and 785 respectively.