Police and administration have been asked to keep a check on child marriages after a disturbing trend in which more under-aged boys were entering into wedlock as compared to girls in Madhya Pradesh was noticed.
"The percentage of boys entering into wedlock below age was higher to girls according to a 2012-13 health survey. Under the 'Lado' drive, steps should be taken to stop child marriages," state women empowerment department commissioner Kalpana Shrivastava has said in the recent directives to senior officials of the departments concerned.
In the directives, officials have been asked to keep a hawk's eye on mass marriages function to be held on April 21 (Akshay Tritya) to ensure that children were not married off at such functions.
According to the survey of 2012-13, 10.6 per cent minor girls and 21.3 per cent minor boys tied the knots.
The trend shows that social malady of child marriage still prevails in the modern society and there was lack of awareness against the evil, district project officer of women and child development department, Chitra Yadav told PTI.
"We prevented a marriage of 19-year-old boy in Indore on April 16 and this shows that evil of child marriage was prevalent in big cities as well," she added.
The permissible age for boys to get married is 21 years and for girls is 18 years. Violating this, invites two years rigorous imprisonment or a fine of Rs one lakh or both as per the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006.
