Grassroots level panels to be formed in Perambalur to prevent child marriages

The Perambalur district administration will soon constitute committees at the block and village levels which are to be exclusively tasked with preventing child marriages and sensitising the general public at the grassroots level to a host of aspects including the importance of higher education for girls.

The committees will comprise officials and employees of the line departments working at the field-level and volunteers who maintain a connect with the locals. A district-level committee with the Collector as the chairperson has been formed to monitor and review the functioning of the committees at the grassroot level and ensure that instances of child marriages are prevented.

The district administration has identified “hotspot” villages in Perambalur district where child marriages have been reported and aspects connected with it. The objective behind constituting the committees at the grassroots level is to prevent child marriages at the planning stage itself, official sources told The Hindu.

The village-level committees would involve field-level revenue officials, village health nurses, anganwadi workers, self-help group members, and ration shop employees besides volunteers who have a close rapport with the locals. Sources cite different reasons for parents to get their minor daughter married, including domestic compulsions.

The committees would organise a series of programmes at the block and village levels inviting rural girls who had excelled in academics, sports, and extracurricular activities with a view to motivating the general public and driving home the importance of higher education for girls and need to prevent child marriage. 

The Act prohibiting child marriage and the health-related hazard that could pose to a minor girl in case of early pregnancy after the marriage would be driven home to the general public by the stakeholders to be involved in this mission.

The sources said many times instances of child marriages come to the notice only after the wedding is conducted in a discreet manner.  The idea is to thwart the attempt at the planning stage itself, said the sources. Ahead of the formation of the committees at the block and village level, Perambalur District Collector N. Mirunalini chaired a meeting recently with officials of various line departments about the latest initiative and to intensify efforts to make the district free from child marriages.