Follow-up important in child marriage cases: DLSA

Ongole: The HELP NGO, Girls Advocacy Alliance and District Legal Services Authority jointly organised a district-level orientation programme for police and judiciary officers on issues of child trafficking and child marriages at Nyaya Seva Sadan here on Sunday.

The chief guest to the programme and district first additional judge RJ Viswanatham asked the police personnel to increase their technical knowledge and accept suggestions and guidance until the hearing was completed in cases related to child and women trafficking. 

He said that the police should attend to the court and it was their responsibility to cooperate with the prosecution lawyer until the verdict was given in the case.

The DLSA secretary, T Raja Venkatadri said that the DLSA and 1098 had stopped about 180 child marriages in the district and most of them were in Markapur division. 

He said that stopping a child marriage was not enough but follow-up was important and police, ICDS and revenue staff should work together for it.

The HELP NGO director, NVS Rammohan said that though our country had numerous Acts, only their implementation to the true spirit eradicates the trafficking of women and children. 

He demanded that the government punish traffickers of women and children severely to reduce the demand and automatically the supply.

The additional senior civil judge, Sarath Babu, public prosecutor Siva Ramakrishna, senior advocate I Venkateswarlu, assistant public prosecutors, police staff from various mandals, HELP programme coordinator N Srinivasa Murthy, GAA programme officers BV Sagar, Manemma, Childline district coordinator P Mantru Naik and others also participated in the programme.