Call to prevent child marriages

Ongole: Poverty, superstitions and violence were the reasons for the prevalence of child marriages and child trafficking, opined the speakers at the district level workshop on the ‘Prevention of child marriages and child trafficking’ organised by HELP and Girls Advocacy Alliance in the town on Wednesday.

HELP representative BV Sagar, social worker Tella Aruna, Child Welfare Committee member M Kishore Kumar, K Ramesh, coordinator of Girls Advocacy Alliance and around 40 representatives from various non-government organisations working in Prakasam district took part in the workshop on prevention of Child Marriages and Child Trafficking and promotion of secondary education and job-oriented vocational training.

The speakers including Sagar said “The adolescent girl in a poor family is becoming a burden and the parents want to get rid of her early and easily. Poverty, illiteracy, child labor, superstition, violence in family, dowry, elopement, infatuation and other social evils are the reasons behind child marriages and their trafficking.

In her speech, T Aruna said that these were social, financial and political reasons and a better solution to this problem should be found. Though there were number of Acts to prevent child marriages and trafficking, the reality at the ground level was different as the field level staff were unable to report the incidents due to the fear of political and social pressure on them.

Kishore Kumar said that a social movement should be launched to put an end to child marriages in India. The government should constitute village level committees to prevent child marriages giving them enough powers, he added.