In compliance with HC order, Rajasthan govt issues norms to curb child marriages

JAIPUR: Complying with a recent order of the High Court, the child rights department on Wednesday issued guidelines for several departments to stop child marriages in the state. The guidelines have been issued for district administrations, education department, local self-government department, police, panchayati raj committees, and women and child development department, among others.
Numerous incidents of child marriage are reported in the state around Akshaya Tritiya, which is on May 10, this year. On May 1, the high court had said elected representatives of panchayat samitis will be held accountable for failing to prevent child marriages.
The department has asked child marriage prohibition officers to submit tri-monthly reports on action taken by them to stop the practice.
At district administration level, the department has instructed that control rooms be set up for prevention of child marriage. It has said that those working to prevent child marriages be encouraged and strict action be taken against officials who fail to stop child marriages.
For the education department, the guidelines state that if a child is missing classes and the absence seems suspicious, then the school administration must find out the cause and speak to the parents. The department has been asked to monitor attendance of students, conduct regular meetings with parents to explain to them consequences of child marriage. School administrations have been instructed to try bring back to school students who have dropped out from senior classes.
For police, the guidelines state that the district magistrate be informed about child marriages likely to take place, and women police officials, anganwadi workers or social workers be present to speak to victims of child marriage. FIRs in such cases must be lodged at the earliest and control rooms must be set up at district level.
For panchayat bodies like zila parishad, gram panchayat and panchayat samiti, the instructions are that on receiving information of a child marriage, all stakeholders must try to stop the marriage.