{"id":8544,"date":"2020-11-12T22:22:52","date_gmt":"2020-11-12T22:22:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fighttrafficking.org\/?post_type=news_atc&p=8544"},"modified":"2020-11-12T22:26:42","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T22:26:42","slug":"during-lockdown-as-mumbai-records-4-complaints-of-child-marriage-authorities-prevent-3","status":"publish","type":"news_atc","link":"https:\/\/www.fighttrafficking.org\/demo\/news_atc\/during-lockdown-as-mumbai-records-4-complaints-of-child-marriage-authorities-prevent-3\/","title":{"rendered":"During lockdown: As Mumbai records 4 complaints of child marriage, authorities prevent 3"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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During lockdown: As Mumbai records 4 complaints of child marriage, authorities prevent 3<\/h1>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Prerana’s Take: <\/strong>Prerana has been following up on one of the cases to ensure the safety of the children. We’re also working with the families to address the matter. Read more on the case here.\u00a0<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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In another case, in Mumbai, our team is working with a victim of trafficking for marriage. Vulnerabilities have increased in the lockdown, hence stakeholders must be conscious of identifying these cases. <\/span>#fighttrafficking<\/a><\/span> <\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
—<\/div>\n

Date: November 09, 2020
<\/strong>Source: The Indian Express
<\/strong>Location: Mumbai, India<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Mumbai, which had reported no child marriages in the last four years, recorded at least one case of child marriage and three cases of such attempted unions during the lockdown.<\/p>\n

In a city where love-struck runaway teens are common, this year saw four cases in which three families tried to marry off a girl child. The women and child development (WCD) department is now asking its social and anganwadi workers to be on high alert in slums and chawls to keep an eye on the tiny marriage halls.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first time I am seeing this kind of incidence in such a short period. Mumbai does not usually have forced child marriages, we only see 16 or 17 year olds eloping,\u201d said Prajakta Desai, child protection officer with the department.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsually, child marriages happen in villages where government scrutiny is low. But now, we are seeing such marriages happening in Mumbai,\u201d said Shobha Shelar, deputy WCD officer in Mumbai suburbs. Shelar added that detection of four cases is an indication that many more may have gone out of their radar.<\/p>\n

Vijay Doiphode, a child welfare committee (CWC) member, said that economic repercussions of the\u00a0Covid-19<\/a>\u00a0pandemic<\/a>\u00a0would be felt strongly in coming months, and predicted that a high incidence of runaway children, child marriages and child abuse would become apparent. \u201cOnce NGO workers start making their field visits, they will come across more child marriages cases,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Across Maharashtra, 255 child marriages have been stopped by the department between January till August with most after March, after the lockdown was imposed. The department has got FIRs filed in 25 cases. In many cases, children have been referred to institutional care because parents are too poor to feed them.<\/p>\n

Manisha Pirari, project manager at the State Adoption Regional Agency, said the sudden incidence of child marriages in Mumbai was a matter of concern. \u201cThis means girl education is being stopped.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2016-17, while Maharashtra recorded 110 child marriages, the figure was 158 in 2017-18, 110 in 2018-19 and 116 till July 2019. The cases, which have doubled since 2016, were not reported from Mumbai.<\/p>\n

Centre coordinator for Yuva Childline, Jitendra Chougule, said child marriages have taken place in Mumbai in the past but were not detected by the government. \u201cNot all get officially recorded. Now, officials are perhaps more alert.\u201d<\/p>\n

In three of the four cases in Mumbai, the city and suburban WCD offices, CWC and Childline were able to intervene and prevent the marriages from taking place. One however, could not be prevented.<\/p>\n

Vikhroli<\/strong><\/p>\n

In June, a late night text message to a social worker saved an alert 14-year-old girl from child marriage in Vikhroli. She is the daughter of a construction worker, who became unemployed after the lockdown. The 14-year-old, one of the seven siblings, was being forced to marry a 34-year-old man because her father decided this was one way to reduce the number of mouths to be fed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe family followed a tradition of engagement at an early age, and marriage after girls turned 18. But the pandemic left the father with no choice. He decided to stop her education,\u201d said Prajakta Desai.<\/p>\n

The girl was a topper in her class, and had cleared Class X. She wanted to study further. Initially, her parents told her they were only getting her engaged but when she saw a new sari, matching jewellery, and too many preparations being made, she realised it was a grander function. The night before she was to be married, she texted the local social worker, who approached the department. The next morning, a team of police and WCD officials stopped the wedding.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe family lived at a construction site. Her parents were not ready to listen. We eventually had to take the minor away and admit her in a child care facility,\u201d said Desai, adding they faced a stiff resistance from the family and had to separate the girl.<\/p>\n

Goregaon<\/strong><\/p>\n

On October 5, WCD social worker Meera Gudile received an email from a Childline helpline regarding a possible marriage planned for November in Aarey Colony. \u201cWe immediately alerted the Aarey police,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The call to Childline had come from a social worker, informing about a 16-year-old girl studying in a BMC school in Class IX. With the lockdown, her father, a driver in Osmanabad, was out of a job. He planned to marry her off to a 22-year-old man. Her mother had passed away and she was staying with her uncle in Goregaon.<\/p>\n

On October 12, Gudile paid a visit to the girl\u2019s Goregaon home. \u201cThe uncle denied that there were any plans for marriage. But this is how families react whenever we try to stop a child marriage\u2026 and the girl was taken away to her village,\u201d she said. Following this, the Aarey police informed its Osmanabad counterpart, which visited her rural home.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have taken an undertaking from the father that she will not be married until she becomes an adult,\u201d Gudile said. A child protection officer will visit her every week. Her father said he has two more children to look after and is unable to find a job.<\/p>\n

Mahul<\/strong><\/p>\n

In August, a Mahul resident anonymously called Childline and tipped off about the possible wedding of a 14-year-old girl in the first week of September. The girl\u2019s mother was the sole earning member in the family of six, her father was a delivery man but did not often report for work. So, the entire house was run by the mother who sold pav and fish at a Mahul rehabilitation site.<\/p>\n

Since March, both parents were out of work. They soon ran out of savings and decided to get the eldest of their four daughters married. In August, the 14-year-old\u2019s marriage was fixed with a 22-year-old Mumbai resident. \u201cFour years ago, she was forced to drop out of school to look after her younger sisters. She would cook and clean the house while her mother was out at work,\u201d said Jitendra Chougule.<\/p>\n

In August, when her mother could no longer arrange for money to buy ration, she convinced her daughter to get married. \u201cThe girl had no choice in the matter,\u201d Chougule said.<\/p>\n

Childline reached out to the RCF police station. \u201cWe counselled the family. They did not even know that getting a minor married was illegal,\u201d Chougule said. The RCF police made the parents sign an undertaking that they will marry their daughter once she is becomes an adult. Childline volunteers now regularly monitor the family.<\/p>\n

Kurla<\/strong><\/p>\n

The one that could not be stopped was the marriage of a 17-year-old girl to a 30-year-old man in June after her aunt, who ran a beauty parlour, could not run her business amid the lockdown.<\/p>\n

As the girl\u2019s mother had died and her father was jobless, she was living with her aunt in Kurla. Her younger cousin, a victim of sexual abuse who was being counselled by CWC, informed them about her cousin\u2019s wedding.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen she told us about her cousin\u2019s age we reached out to the family,\u201d said CWC member Doiphode. \u201cThe aunt said the girl will become an adult in a few months and she can\u2019t keep her at home till then. We had no option but to intimate the local police and get an FIR registered,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Read The Indian Express (Source) article <\/span>here<\/a>.<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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