WUNRN
INDIA - CHILD MARRIAGES REDUCED THROUGH
REGIONAL GOVERNMENT-UNICEF PROGRAM
Roli Srivastava, TNN - June 19, 2011
HYDERABAD: Kiran Kumar Reddy may have made for a pretty picture helping a girl child write at a government school in Ameerpet, but it is in the distant revenue division of Adoni in Kurnool district that a real revolution is actually unfolding. Revenue officials here have stopped a whopping 400 child marriages in less than two months.
In a crackdown unseen earlier, officials spearheaded an anti-child marriage campaign along with other government departments and Unicef across the 17 mandals of Adoni. The result: this wedding season at Adoni saw fewer child marriages than the previous years.
Local officials have even managed to put a system in placepeople performing
marriages of their children in Adoni now mandatorily need to carry the bride
and the grooms age certificates. It has also been made mandatory for presses
printing wedding cards to ask for age proofs of brides and grooms.