Child marriage thwarted at Jind village

A child marriage was successfully prevented from being solemnised late last night at Kharak Gadia village of Jind district. The girl was 13 years old and the boy 19. Both were school dropouts.

The groom's father, Rajesh Kumar from Niyat village, Sonepat district, had arrived with a 60-member wedding procession. The bride's father, Vakil from Mohammad Khera village in Jind, had come from Mumbai to conduct the ceremony at the house of the bride’s uncle.

An NGO, Mission to the Desperate and Destitute of India, received a tip-off and alerted Child Marriage Prohibition Officer (CMPO) Sunita. A joint team of the CMPO, police and NGO members intervened, verified the ages through birth certificates, and confirmed that both of them were underage.

Officials warned the two families of legal consequences, leading to the immediate cancellation of the ceremony. Both families were summoned to the local women’s police station, where they gave written statements claiming ignorance of the law, and were later presented before the Child Welfare Committee.