A 15-year-old girl in Hyderabad showed a lot of strength and will power when she managed to stop her wedding with her cousin by calling the child welfare helpline.
The incident happened on Friday when the girl was forced by her parents to not sit for her class 10th examinations and get married to her 21-year-old cousin who worked as a driver in Yadarigutta, reports The News Minute.
The courageous girl called the child welfare helpline at 9 am when her wedding was scheduled for 11.20 am. Immediately, child welfare helpline and SHE Teams rushed to the scene and stopped the wedding.
Some drama ensued at the marriage hall when the girl claimed that she was a minor while her parents produced an Aadhar card which showed that she was 18-years-old. However, after the authorities checked her school document, they concluded that she was indeed a minor.
The police booked the parents under 107 Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). This section makes sure that the accused do not repeat the crime. They were then let go with a warning.
Nacharam Inspector M Mahesh told TNM that the girl's parents were unwell and wanted to see their daughter married before they died. After her rescue, the girl is now in the Nimboliadda shelter home.
While child marriage has been denounced as legal, the percentage of minor getting married is, unfortunately, still high. A report by Young Lives India showed that the maximum number of child marriages take place in Tripura. The study was conducted analyzing the children born to mother below the age of 18 and ascertaining their marital status.
"Analysis of a number of children born to teenage mothers reveals that 52 per cent of married teenage girls have given birth to one child, 5.5 per cent had two children and one per cent had more than two children by the tender age of 19," the report said, according to The New Indian Express.
