Deliveries by underage girls to be monitored in Goa hospitals

Following the Supreme Court's ruling that sexual intercourse with minor wife would amount to rape, Goa Health Minister Vishwajit Rane today said that deliveries by underage girls at government hospitals would be monitored.

The apex court in a landmark judgement today said that sexual intercourse with a minor wife in the age group of 15-18 would be a crime and amount to rape.

"This is a decision which needs to be welcomed. We have come across several cases of delivery in the government-run hospitals where the mother is as young as 16 years," Rane said.

He had issued guidelines to heads of all the state-run hospitals to monitor such cases and bring them to the notice of concerned authorities, he said.