Child marriage thwarted in Odisha's Ganjam dist

An attempt to marry off over a 15-year-old girl to a youth, who is around eight years older than her, has been foiled by a team of rights activists, police and administration officials in Odisha's Ganjam district, a senior police officer said here today.

The marriage, which was about to get solemnized at a temple in Hinjili police station area of the district, was called off on Thursday after the police, the members of district child protection unit and senior child rights activists intervened, he said.

"We convinced both set of parents that the marriage is illegal and they agreed to postpone it till the girl attains the age of 18,"the inspector in-charge of Hinjili police station, P K Sahoo, said.

The father of the girl has also given an undertaking that there would be no move from his side to get his daughter married till she turns 18, he said.

"We did not register any case against the parents as they have agreed to abide by the law," he said.

The child marriage could be stopped because of the timely intervention by the police and the activists, said center coordinator of Childline, Ganjam, H K Ray.

Both the families are residents of a village in Sheragada block of the district, he said.

"The girl, a farmer's daughter, is a school dropout while the groom is an employee of a textile mill in Surat," he added.