TIRUNELVELI: Tirunelveli district witnessed a total of 1,448 deliveries by girls below 18 years, within a period of 34 months from January 2021 to October 2023, revealed an RTI reply sought by A Veronica Mary, a health activist.
Demanding the state government to intensify awareness programmes against child marriage and include sex education and demerits of early pregnancy in school text books, Mary said, “Out of the 1,448 deliveries, 1,101 deliveries took place in Primary Health Centres (PHCs) located in rural and urban areas of 10 blocks of this district. The Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital saw 347 child deliveries in the given months, while among the PHCs, Melapalayam urban PHC witnessed the highest number of deliveries (88), followed by Manur rural PHC (44).”
The activist further claimed that school-dropout among girls was one of the major reasons for child marriage in rural and urban areas. “After girls drop out from schools, their parents decide to marry them off and a sizable number of girls elope with boys or youths. What they undergo post-marriage is a sexual abuse, which is punishable under Pocso Act. In 2012, the state government had issued a GO to commence mobile vehicle units to create awareness among students about sexual offences following a rise in similar cases. Later, in 2022, I approached the Madurai Bench of Madras HC for implementation of this order. However, despite the order, the GO has not been implemented yet. Most of the school students are not even aware of the helpline number 1098,” she said.
When contacted by TNIE, K Thanalakshmi, district social welfare officer, Tirunelveli said that the department was already involved in creating awareness against child marriage in schools.
"In the district, love marriages are more common than arranged ones, and often the matter is brought to our notice only after the girl child gets pregnant. With the help of district administration, we have started taking a list of children dropping out of schools, and are attempting to bring them back, thereby preventing such cases of child marriages," she added.
Meanwhile, police sources said that cases were being registered in connection with all child pregnancy incidents in Tirunelveli district. "The case numbers seem to be high as all the child pregnancy cases are being noted down by the PHCs concerned, and brought to the notice of police and social welfare departments, unlike the old days. Also, the elope-and-marry incidents contribute to 99 % of the child pregnancy cases. Nevertheless, police personnel have been conducting Pocso awareness classes in schools across the district," sources added.
