Guna child marriage: Constitution doesn't accept such incidents, says Panchayat Minister

Condemning the development emerging from Guna in Madhya Pradesh where the village Panchayat fixed the marriage of a five-year-old girl with an eight-year-old boy, the state Panchayat Minister Vishwas Sarang on Saturday said that such systems are not permissible in a society according to the Constitution.

"Such incidents are very unfortunate and not acceptable at all. These kinds of systems are neither permissible according to the Constitution nor in a society," he added.

Sarang further said that an investigation will take place regarding the matter and the culprits will be put behind bars.

"Investigation will happen and if something comes up then the culprits will be punished. These things are totally unconstitutional," he asserted.

Bringing to fore the regressive mindset still prevalent in rural India, a shocking diktat was given by Khiriyadangi Panchayat in Tarpur village here, where the marriage of a five-year-old daughter of a villager was fixed with an eight-year-old boy.

The decision was made due to death of a calf by the girl's father Jagdish Banjara three years back.

Banjara had hit a calf with a stone while it was feeding in his field, due to which the calf died.

Following this, he and his family were boycotted by the villagers.

He was also asked to take a bath in the Ganges and distribute food in village.

According to the Panchayat, since the death of the calf nothing auspicious has happened in the village.

Due to this, the Panchayat now fixed Jagdish's five-year-old daughter's marriage with an eight-year-old boy as a mark of repentance.

Raising voice against the injustice, the girl's mother filed a complaint with SDM Neeraj Sharma.

The officials have already given a warning to the Panchayat to not go forward with such a thing but the Panchayat is adamant on doing it.

Earlier, a team was sent to Tarpur village for investigating the incident of the Panchayat.

Guna ADM Nizam Khan has assured that strict action would be taken against the culprits.

"We are sending a probe team to this village, strict action will be taken against the culprits," Khan told ANI.