Hyderabad: Officials from the Women Development and Child Welfare department (WDCW) stopped a child marriage at Vambay Colony in Habeebnagar on Monday. Based on a tip-off that preparations were underway to marry off a 14-year-old girl to a 20-year-old youth, officials from Hyderabad Childline, WDCW and cops rescued the child.
Marriage done as father was ill
The family of the girl whose child marriage was stopped, had fixed the marriage as her father was ill and wanted to get her married early. WDCW officials said that the wedding was to take place at 3 pm on Monday, but they reached the spot four hours before the ceremony.
Earlier Childline Hyderabad had received information about the wedding. “The girl was studying in Class IX in a local school. The caller informed that her wedding was fixed with a relative named Omkar, who is a mechanic in the area,” said A. Ashwini, an official from Childline. The girl’s father, Rajan Singh, had been suffering from paralysis for the last few months.
Her mother N. Shobha and Rajan Singh’s second wife had found a match within the family and fixed the wedding. “We are not doing well financially. I wanted to marry off my child before she goes astray,” said Ms Shobha. Officials shifted the victim to the girls’ home in Nimboli Adda. She told her rescuers that she did not know why her parents were in a hurry to marry her off and that she wanted to study further.
The police, meanwhile, is yet to book a case against the family since the girl’s father is extremely ill. “We are submitting the report to the Child Welfare Committee who will decide what action is to be taken on the matter,” said a Child Protection official from WDCW.
