Thursday, 08 July 2021 | PNS | Dehradun
In order to raise awareness against child marriages in the remote areas of the Dehradun district, the administration will soon run a campaign under the department of Women Empowerment and Child Development (WECD).
According to the officials, the department used to conduct such awareness campaigns every year but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it has not been organised since last year. They informed that the department recently got information about the marriage of an underage teenager. The women welfare officer arrived there with a team and stopped the wedding. The teenage girl along with her parents was provided counselling against child marriage. The team also warned the parents that authorities will take action against them if they try to get their daughters married before 18 years of age, informed the officials.
Talking about the child marriage issues, the women welfare officer of Dehradun district, Saroj Dhyani said that the department registered about 10 cases of child marriages in the district in the last financial year and about five cases have been registered this year too. The department stopped all these child marriages in time and provided required counselling and help to the children and parents.
According to her, most of these cases belong to poor people who have big families to feed and live in slum areas. Dhyani said that they used to run their campaign against child marriage in schools in order to make them aware of why child marriage is wrong and what they can do if they find anyone in the same situation but the department failed to conduct it since last year due to the Covid pandemic. “As soon as the State government provides more relaxation in Covid guidelines, we will start the campaign,” said Dhyani. She also appealed to people to call at 1098 or 181 to register the complaints about child marriage. She said that complainants do not need to reveal their names and even if they do, the department never discloses them.
