CHENNAI: In April 2020, after learning that a Class X student living with her grandparents in Thiruvanmiyur was to be married off to a 42-year-old person, the neighbours and friends alerted activists who got the wedding stopped.
A few weeks later, the family living on the grandmother’s meagre income as a domestic help relocated to Tiruvannamalai district. The girl’s whereabouts remain a mystery.
In July this year, a teacher from a corporation school in Chennai said several girls who came to receive their Class XII mark sheets sported a ‘mangalsutra’, after being married off due to their parents’ loss of livelihood and low cost of weddings during the lockdown.
With places like Chennai, Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram, Coimbatore, Salem, Trichy and Tirunelveli reporting an increase in the prevalence of the evil practice, RTI data from directorate of social welfare shows the number of child marriage cases in TN in 2020 rose by 45% over 2019.
Data received by social activist S Prabakar showed 3,208 child marriages were prevented in TN in 2020 compared to 2,209 cases in 2019. “Urban poverty is the major reason for increase in such cases. Members of deprived communities living in small houses in relocated colonies like Semmenchery, fearing for the safety of their girl children, marry them off young,” said A Devaneyan, a child rights activist. The government needs to activate village level child protection committees and ward level child protection committees in this regard, he added.
While some activists urge the social welfare department to continuously monitor girls rescued from child marriages, others say school closure is another major problem. “Around 1% of students in our school were married during the lockdown. We came to know about it only when they came to receive their mark sheets,” a teacher from a city corporation school said.
Andrew Sesuraj, state convenor of Tamil Nadu Child Rights Watch, said that girl students had lost a safe place due to the closure of schools. “When they spend more time on their mobile phones at home, parents become suspicious and marry them off, fearing inter-caste marriage.” The number of cases of elopement too had increased, he added.
R Vidyasagar, former child protection specialist with Unicef, said the loss of livelihood had led to many people getting their daughters married. “The feel it is one person less to feed. Sometimes the groom’s family also pays bribes for young brides. The dowry is also less for young children. The government too has never bothered to find out the real reasons for child marriages. Stopping marriages alone will not help. They should carry people along with them by providing them alternate livelihood options and support for girl children,” he said.
