Activists in Karnataka fear massive rise in child marriages

BENGALURU: With the state government advising the public to preferably hold wedding ceremonies at home with not more than 40 attendees, child rights activists have raised concerns that the move will push more children to wedlock with utmost secrecy.
Pointing out that child marriages have increased since the lockdown in April 2020, Nagasimha G Rao from Child Rights Trust said he has escalated the matter to women and child welfare minister Shashikala Jolle.
“Marriages already scheduled are permitted to be conducted at respective homes in a low-key manner involving only close family relatives (up to 40 people),” read a circular issued by the government on May 8.
Activists feel given the lockdown scenario, there are possibilities of children being married off at home unnoticed. “When such marriages were held in temples and choultries, we used to get alerts from people. They would call children’s helpline 1098 and marriages would be prevented. With another lockdown in place, many parents who have been pushed to poverty may end up getting their daughters married,” Rao said.
He said it would be very diffciult to prevent child marriages at home as they would be conducted with utmost secrecy.
Rao in his letter to Jolle said all wedding passes handed out by the government must have a tagline stating that “child marriages are prohibited” along with the mention of the 1098 helpline.
As per data with the women and child welfare department, 2,074 child marriages were prevented between February and November last year. The highest number was averted by the department in Ballari (218), followed by Mysuru (177), Belagavi (131) and Chikkaballapura and Chitradurga (107 each).
However, there were 188 child marriages held during the same period and the department has filed FIRs in 108 cases so far. As per data with TOI, the highest number of child marriages were held during the period in Hassan
(26), followed by Mandya (25), Mysuru (24), Belagavi (19) and Ramanagara (13).
In Bengaluru city, five child marriages were held and 20 were prevented.
More awareness
Anuradha KN, director, women and child welfare department, said marriages at home should not be a concern as whistleblowers who alert the authorities are either neighbours or relatives themselves.
“Given the Covid situation, the government has suggested marriages take place at home. Even when child marriages were happening in choultries, we prevented them. Going by the previous year’s lockdown experience, there is more awareness among officers to prevent them,” said Anuradha.
She added that based on tipoffs, members of NGOs, child rights activists and child marriage prohibition officers can go ahead and stop the event even when it is happening at home.