Rajasthan govt mandates date of birth on wedding invites to curb child marriages | Representative Image
Jaipur: In order to prevent child marriages, the Rajasthan government has directed the printing presses to get the age proof of the bride and groom from the concerned families and print the date of birth of both on invitation card.
Besides this, the government machinery has been asked to approach the Halwais, Pandits, tent houses, band troops, caterers, and transporters to sensitize them against the child marriages and the prevalent law of Child Marriage Prohibition Act.
Detailed directions have been issued to the by the Additional Chief Secretary of Home Department, Anand Kumar looking at the coming festivals of Akshaya Tritiya (Akha Teej and Peepal Purnima) which are considered to be the prominent occasions for solemnizing child marriages in the state for years.
The Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) has directed all the District Collectors, SPs and Deputy Commissioners of Police of the state to be extra cautious and keep the government machinery active to prevent such marriages.
“like in the past years, for effective prevention of child marriage, the provisions of the Child Marriage Prohibition Act should be widely publicized through the employees/officers of various departments posted at the village and tehsil level and public representatives,” said the ACS in his letter to the officers.
Along with this, various support groups, women groups, health workers, Anganwadi workers, Mahila Suraksha Sakhi, Saathin Sahayogi and others have also been activated to contact the families and parents to change their mindset and thinking.
Notably, according to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 5 data, though, Rajasthan has shown impressive improvement in prevention of child marriages, but the state is still having 20-29 percent of women aged 20-24 married below 18.
Looking at this, for effective prevention, the village level government employees have been made bound to inform the nearest police station in case of child marriages.
“In case of child marriages, accountability of the “Child Marriage Prohibition Officers” (Sub-Divisional Magistrate) appointed under the Child Marriage Prohibition Act, 2006 should be fixed, and disciplinary action should be taken against those in whose areas child marriages took place,” said the order.
The Rajasthan High Court in May last year observed in a judgment that a duty was cast on the village sarpanch under the Rajasthan Panchayati Raj Rules, 1996, to restrain child marriages. The court had directed the State government to sensitize and inform sarpanches and panches that they would be held responsible if they failed to prevent child marriages in their villages.
