Indore (Madhya Pradesh): The women and child development department has become the vanguard against child marriages in the district and between January 2022 and July 2023, they received 90 complaints of child marriages and managed to prevent 85 of them.
The department has filed FIRs in only five of these cases and in the rest of the cases they have counselled the parents not to hold the marriage.
In a recent rescue operation, the team from the department rescued a 17-year-old girl residing in the Annapurna area who was going to be married off by the family. The team reached the spot and counselled the family.
Pallavi Porwal, chairperson, child welfare committee informed Free Press that after counselling the family of the girl filed an affidavit promising that they will not marry off the girl till she turns 18.
Mahendra Pathak, anti-child marriage flying squad member said, “The girl will turn 18 in four months, but the family was rushing to get her married. They presented us with the Aadhar Card where her mentioned age was 20. Surprisingly, her school marksheet revealed her correct age and preventive action was taken accordingly.’”
5 FIRs Registered
The five FIRs were registered at Khajrana, Vijaynagar, Ujjain, and Rajendra Nagar police stations. “Most of the cases get resolved as the department receives information before the marriages. However, FIR was registered against family members of these five victims for using wrongful tactics,” said Pathak.
Maulavis And Pandits Not Spared
Pathak informed Free Press that in two of the five FIRs, a case was registered against a Maulavi at Khajrana police station and a Pandit at Vijay Nagar police station. “Other than the family members, the people who are involved in the act and thus promoted the idea of child marriage were also booked.”
Aadhar Card Fails To Become Identity
Ramniwas Budholiya, joint director, WCD said that the department relies on the school leaving marksheet as the main proof while verifying age. Pathak said, “In every case, the family tries to misguide the officers by showing the aadhar card and in most of the cases, the age mentioned in the document is wrong.”
Local Politician Intervenes To Stop FIR
According to officials they came across an incident of child marriage in December 2022 in Dhar and complained with the police asking them to register an FIR against the accused. However, the police have not registered the FIR so far, allegedly due to the influence of a politician who owns the venue where the child marriage was taking place.
