In 17 months, 863 complaints of child marriage received

Sunit Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Rohtak, October 21

The state may have made rapid advancements in the recent past, but there are certain social concerns which need to be addressed on a priority. For instance, as many as 863 complaints of child marriage have been received across the state in the last 17 months.

Of these, 615 complaints were received between April 1, 2017, and March 31, 2018, and 248 complaints from April 1 to August 31.

An analysis of the reported instances of child marriage reveals that a majority of such cases have been reported from the parts of Haryana bordering Rajasthan, followed by the Mewat area.

The maximum complaints of child marriage during 2017-18 were received from Fatehabad district (85), followed by Sirsa (81) and Mewat (52). On the contrary, three complaints of child marriage were received from Panchkula district, nine from Jhajjar and 11 from Faridabad.

Officials dealing with the cases of child marriage maintain that parents marry off their minor daughters if they have or are suspected to have love affairs; or if the parents apprehend that their daughter may elope with a youth of her choice.

“The patriarchal mindset, which does not allow a girl to exercise her choice in the matter of marriage, appears to be the dominating factor. The parents are also aware of the fact that once the girl attains adulthood, she can legally marry a youth of her choice and then, they would not be able to do anything about it,” observes Karminder Kaur, Protection-cum-Child Marriage Prohibition Officer, Rohtak.

On being asked what steps are taken to check the occurrence of child marriages, the officer maintains that on receiving any complaint/information of child marriage, they verify the facts.

“If the complaint is found true, we counsel the parents of the girl as well as the boy and tell them about the punishment they can get in case they solemnise a child marriage. If they understand the point and agree not to marry their minor children, we take affidavits from them. Some cases are referred to the police and in some others, we have to obtain injunction (stay orders) from a court of law,” says Kaur.

Raja Sekhar Vundru, Principal Secretary, Women and Child Development Department, says the high number of complaints only shows that the government has been able to prevent these child marriages.

“We have Child Marriage Prohibition Officers in all districts of the state who always swing into action the moment they receive any complaint of child marriage,” Vundru added.