Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Friday directed the state government to show some concern for the victims of child marriages.
The court asked the government to provide the best educational facilities, skill development and health services to them, as most of them were destitute and none to take care of them.
The division bench, comprising Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Abhinand Kumar Shavili, was dealing with the taken-up PIL related to hardships of child-marriage victims.
K. Mahalatha and 10 others wrote a letter to the High Court explaining the sad plight of the victims, especially when it came to eking out a living.
The petitioners said that there were many cases in which the victims were abused and tortured by family members. They pointed out that there was no social protection scheme for such victims because they were minors. Taking the letter as PIL, the court directed the concerned public authorities to file a detailed report about how they were assisting such victims.
Meanwhile, the director of women and child welfare filed a counter stating that they were facilitating such victims by way of shelter in swadhar gruhas, taking care of their education, skill development and empowerment training programmes in institutions like Kasturibhai Balika Vidyalayas and Durgabai Deshmukh Polytechnic College at Ameerpet.
After perusing the counter, the court observed that it would be in the fitness of things if some reservation was provided to such victims in all educational courses and asked the government to pursue it.
