Mahakalapara: Rampant marriage of minor girls has posed serious threat to their lives and health in this part of Kendrapara district due to lack of serious effort on part of the district administration, a report said.
Observers and intellectuals attributed its rise to poverty, lack of proper education and awareness. Reports added that several girls under this block have been married off by their parents at an underage despite knowing that such marriages are illegal and might invite action from police.
Studies reveal that child marriage is driven by poverty and has many effects on girls’ health. A girl carries the increased risk for sexually transmitted diseases, cervical cancer, malaria, death during childbirth, and obstetric fistulas if married at an early age.
Girls’ offspring are at increased risk for premature birth and death as neonates, infants, or children. Child marriage violates children’s rights and places them at high risk of violence, exploitation, and abuse.
The marriage of minor girls are mostly rampant in Batighar, Kharinasi, Ramnagar, Petachhela, Baulakani, Jambu, Suniti, Gagua, Lanjuda and Kansarbadadandua panchayats under this block where the parents marry off their daughters to minor boys or overage grooms.
However, the district administration except foiling a few marriages has not been successful in curbing the illegal act. The district administration has managed to stop only nine marriages in 2019-20 said, Manorama Swain, the block ICDS officer.
Among them, three marriages are from Ramnagar panchayat and one each from Batighar, Jambu, Baulakani, Suniti, Nanjura and Badihi panchayats in the block. She said that more raids will take place in coming days to stop such marriages. She added that there are several reasons behind the early marriages of minor girls and often the family members are directly or indirectly involved in such marriages.
Observers claimed that child marriage is the result of the interplay of economic and social forces. In communities where the practice is prevalent, marrying a girl as a child is part of a cluster of social norms and attitudes that reflect the low value accorded to the human rights of girls.
A social activist Biranchi Narayan Das said that tradition, custom, love affairs and mostly to cover up the rape cases fearing social stigma; parents marry off their daughters before they attain the legally prescribed age of 18 for marriage. In many cases, poor and gullible persons do not hesitate to marry off their daughters to outsiders in other states in exchange of some money.
The early marriage of the girls before they attain prescribed age of 18 for marriage often proves hazardous for their health. The girl after marriage becomes pregnant which often results in death for her or that of her child. The early pregnancy might result in delivery of stillborn or disabled child, warned Dr Manoj Kumar Panda, medical officer of Mahakalapara community health centre (CHC).
When contacted, Maheswar Sethi, IIC of Jambu Marine police said that police will take action on receipt of any complaint.
PNN