DCW saves teen girl from child marriage

Ananya Panda

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 10

A 13-year-old girl has been rescued from her house in Palam by the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) preventing her from being married off to a man much older than her, and something that could have turned her life into a hell later.

What is appalling is that the man (25 years) the teenager was to be married was the younger brother of her “sexual assaulter”. The perpetrator apparently wanted her to be married to his younger brother, as shared by the victim with DCW counsellors.

Further, going by the commission's claim, "no FIR has been registered" by the Delhi Police over the incident which once again stands testimony to the disturbing fact of how girls are still being forced into matrimony in India, including the national capital, without any fear of law. The DCW has issued a notice to police for registering the FIR immediately.

A DCW official said acting on a complaint received by the commission through a call from Child Helpline, Kurukshetra, senior counsellors rushed to the spot where wedding arrangements had begun.

The commission informed the SHO following which a police team reached the house and stopped the wedding preparations.

The minor victim, who belongs to a poor family, with her mother being a domestic help and her father a daily wage labourer, told the commission that the supposed groom's 35-year-old brother had previously sexually abused her and wanted to have her married to his brother to perpetuate the crime.