Timely intervention by officials following a tip-off by a student helped stop the marriage of a 12-year-old girl with her maternal uncle in Sathyamangalam Taluk on Thursday.
According to sources, Palanisamy and Devi, both farm labourers from Periyur town panchayat, decided to give their daughter Sreedevi, a class 7 student, in marriage to Devi’s brother Nagaraj (25). Nagaraj, a farm labourer, had 25 cents of land in the village and the family belonged to the Thottiyanaikkar community.
The girl’s parents had planned to solemnise the marriage at her puberty ceremony in the village on Thursday. However, a student from the village passed on the information to the Erode Collector VK Shanmugam on Thursday.
The Collector then directed Sathy Tahsildar Madheswaran to rush to the village and stop the marriage. However, relatives of the couple, numbering close to about a 100, came out in support of the bride- and the groom-to-be.
The revenue officials then informed the villagers that child marriage was a punishable offence and persuaded them to give up the plan to enter the couple into wedlock.
The girl’s parents once again planned to conduct the marriage at Irumbarai in Mettupalayam Taluk secretly.
“On getting information about this, I asked the Sathy Tahsildar to contact his counterpart in Mettupalayam and take action to stop the marriage,” the Erode Collector told Express.