Officials prevent child marriage at Perampalli in Udupi district

UDUPI: Various government agencies on order from deputy commissioner Priyanka Mary Francis

prevented child marriage

at Perampalli in Shivalli village in Udupi city municipal council limits on Monday. The marriage of minor daughter of Prabhavathi was scheduled to be held at the house of

Shreesha Bhat

. A team of officials headed by

Grace Gonsalves

, deputy director, department of women and child welfare visited the marriage house and stopped the same.

Grace said the house was all decked up for the event and the bride’s mother too was present at the venue. “We called aside the mother, her brother and his wife, and other immediate relatives and informed that marrying a girl before she turned 18 would attract provisions of The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act,” she said, adding the stakeholders in this entire exercise were also explained about what legal troubles awaited them if they went ahead in solemnizing the event.

A perusal of date of birth certificate and Aadhar card of the ‘bride’ indicated that she was born on January 7, 2001 and thus a minor. “We again impressed on Prabhavathi and her daughter on the provisions of the Act,”

Grace

said, adding the officials also obtained an undertaking that the marriage will be solemnized only after she turned 18. The team met Shreesha Bhat, the priest, who said the parents assured to provide documents certifying she was of marriageable age.

Shreesha said he agreed to solemnize the marriage as per rituals on request from the bride’s mother and her assurance that the bride was had attained the legal marriageable age. The priest also admitted that he is aware of the provisions of the above act and that it is an offence for any girl below 18-years to enter in to wedlock. He also gave an undertaking to the officials that henceforth he would doubly check the age of the

bride and groom

as per mandated in the Act