Amidst reports of unlawful child marriages taking place in temples across the State, the State law department has asked the commissioner of endowments to prohibit the performance of underage weddings in Hindu shrines.
Issuing advisory and circular in this regard, the law department sought all temples for display on notice boards for non-solemnization of child marriages. The notices should display and mention that marriage before the legally permissible age is an offence and no child marriage should be solemnized in the temples, said an official of the law department.
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Such a decision has been taken after the women and child welfare department brought the practice of child marriages in the temples to the notice of the law department, the official added.
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The legally permissible age for girls and boys to get married is 18 and 21 respectively. In the event, they marry before attaining the permissible age; such weddings come under the category of child marriages.
It’s the girl children who are mostly being thrown into weddings at an early age. The women and child welfare department has begun implementing an action plan and laid focus to keep girls in schools, continue their education, and bring back dropout girls to the education system, enrolment into skill development programmes and livelihood programmes for young women. Child marriages result in early motherhood which is detrimental to minor girl’s health, said the women and child welfare department officials.
Poverty coupled with the ignorance of illiterate parents has all contributed to the prevalence of this illegal practice. Ironically the majority of parents are unaware of the legal provisions of Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, which is a cognizable offence.
The number of child marriages in Keonjhar, Ganjam, Malkangiri, Nabarangpur, Mayurbhanj, Koraput, Keonjhar, Gajapti are more pronounced than the rest of the State, the officials concluded.
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