“Dear sister, SMS me when you are forced into child marriage,” says the Dharmapuri district collector in a letter to all schoolchildren in her district.

Tired of educating parents against child marriage, the Dharmapuri district administration has now approached children directly to fight against underage marriage.

Collector R. Lilly has sent an informal letter to all schoolchildren, individually asking them to alert her about child marriage and explaining to them the ill-effects of such a marriage.

“We are exhausted. We informed parents about problems arising out of child marriage and in many cases, we stop such marriages. But we couldn’t bring down the number of child marriages here. So we have chosen to target children directly,” Lilly said.

The collector said that more than 70 marriages were stopped in last year. “Though we stop the marriage, parents tend to take their children out of Dharmapuri after a few weeks and get them married,” she added.

Lilly pointed out that scores of migrant workers in Dharmapuri feel secure after they get their teenaged girls married as they go out of town for work.

She has given a mobile number (9444161000) in the letter and asked students to send her a message on child marriage. She also promised that the identity of the sender would not be revealed. The rescued child would be provided all help to continue studies, she said.

Recent UNICEF statistics show that one in every four girls in Tamil Nadu gets married before she turns 18.

The study says Krishnagiri district tops with 44.6 per cent of girls being forced into early marriage and Dharmapuri and Salem districts following with 43.2 per cent and 42.9 per cent.