HYDERABAD : A lot of welfare schemes and measures for rehabilitation are available to prevent child marriage of girls. But, there is very little focus on boys. This is a crucial black spot as the NFHS survey says that 18.1 per cent of men in Telangana are married off before they attain the legal age of 21.
The state government has launched two popular schemes — Kalyana Lakshmi and Shaadi Mubarak — to address the pressing issue of child marriages by extending financial assistance to the tune of Rs 1,00,116. This scheme was introduced to deter child marriages of girls among the weaker sections where the practice is rampant.
“It is a sad thing that no focus is given to boys. Both the NGOs and the government have no interventions or policies to prohibit child marriages among the boys,” says S Ramesh Reddy, program director of Mahita Foundation. The best possible way to stop underage marriages, researchers say, is to strictly implement the compulsory registration of Marriages Act-2012.
“Registration of marriages should be compulsory based on the recent law, which will cut away those who are marrying at the young age. Also, such registration should be tied up with social welfare schemes to increase accountability,” says Dr P Prudhvikar Reddy, a rural development and childhood poverty researcher at Centre for Economic and Social Studies.