5 Child Marriages Hindered in Ganjam

Reporters Today, Berhampur: A total of five child marriages have been foiled across Ganjam district of the state following swift action by the administration, officials said today.

While three attempts to marry off three minor girls were thwarted in Hinjili block, two such attempts were foiled in Sanakhemundi and Bhanjanagara blocks yesterday, they said. All the girls were aged between 15 and 17 years, they said. Officials of the district administration, police officers and activists of an NGO went to the villages after getting information about the attempts to marry off the minor girls, an official said.

Though the families were initially reluctant to drop the idea of marrying off the minor girls, later they realized that such practices are illegal, he said. “We have convinced the parents and all of them have given undertakings that they will not get their daughters married till they attain the age 18 years,” the Coordinator of Childline NGO, Sai Prasad Samal, said.