Child marriage: Officials face stiff resistance in Warangal

Warangal: Preventing child marriages is no easy job. A couple of incidents this week substantiate the fact how tough it was for the Warangal Rural District Child Protection Unit (DCPU). Despite the widespread propaganda and the awareness programmes by the administration, the child marriage malady is rampant in the district especially in the rural parts.

It was a bitter and of course a life-threatening experience for the officials, who on Wednesday night dashed to Thallakunta Thanda under Wardhannapet mandal on getting information that a 12-year-old girl was about to be married. The 15-member DCPU contingent that also included Revenue, Childline-1098 and Police had to confront the Thanda residents. They stopped on the road not allowing the officials to head towards the girl child's home.

The whole Thanda residents and guests turned to attend the wedding showed a lot of resistance to the officials. They argued vehemently and abused, forcing the officials to leave the Thanda.

DCPO G Mahender Reddy, who led the officials, said that it was terrifying as all the residents converged on them until they departed from the Thanda. 'Many of the residents were under the influence of liquor and were not in a position to listen to us. Some of the officials took blows from the locals,' Reddy said.

The officials reported the incident to Rural Collector M Haritha, District Welfare Officer K Chinnaiah and Additional Collector R Mahender Reddy and DCP K Venkata Lakshmi.

On Thursday, the DCPU officials submitted relevant documents of the girl's age and sought the Wardhannapet police to book cases against the girl's parents, who married off their child and those, who obstructed the officials on Wednesday night.

CDPO Padma and Supervisor Hemalatha were among others present.