200 child marriages averted by DLSA, others
Ongole: The Prakasam district judge and chairman of District Legal Services Authority, MG Priyadarsini asked the people to let the girls continue education and postpone the thought of getting the girls married before 18 years of age.
She announced that in the last one-and-a-half years, about 200 child marriages were averted with the help of DLSA, Childline and HELP NGO in the district. She appreciated the fighting spirit of four girls who are continuing education after they said no to marriages and scored good grade points in Class X.
The secretary of DLSA, T Raja Venkatadri said that Turaka Sobha, aged 15 years lives with her grandmother and maternal uncle at Valivetipalem after her father died long ago. As she was being forced by her grandmother to get marry her son of age 26 years, she shifted to Kondareddypalem to her mother and travelled four hours to continue her school.
As the DLSA ordered on February 3, 2018, the paralegal volunteer BV Sagar made arrangements for her to continue education without any pressure from her family members. Now, she passed the Class X with 9.2 GPA and thanked the DLSA and all others for helping her. Similar cases with Sk Shaheena and G Kavya from Ongole also reported. They were rescued from child marriages, said Raja Venkatadri. He announced that Shaheena passed Class X with 9.7 GPA while Kavya scored 9.0 GPA.
Raja Venkatadri also introduced Bejjam Deepika from Chirala, who scored 9.8 GPA in Class X. She lost her parents a few years ago and approached BV Sagar for help to continue education. The HELP NGO joined her at the Ashasadan in Machavaram and ZP High School to continue education. She became the first ranker in the school with 9.8 GPA in Class X in English medium. Sagar introduced D Mari Suneetha, a polytechnic first year student.
She fought with her family against her marriage few years back and now became part of the team to do padayatra in western area of Prakasam district to create awareness in the public on the adverse effects of child marriages. Now her father Sudhir, a welder at Kanigiri is proud of her and is supporting the ongoing padayatra.
The judge, Priyadarsini appreciated these girls and asked them to continue their spirit and become an inspiration to others.Raja Venkatadri said that the DLSA not only rescues girls from child marriages, but also rescues runaway children and reunites with their parents, and joins orphaned, HIV infected, begging children in schools and homes to continue education and helps them become good citizens.