Mumbai, May 30 (IANS). Maharashtra Women and Child Development (WCD) Minister Aditi Tatkare on Saturday said ‘child marriage free Maharashtra’ is the ultimate goal of the state government. He said that the department has set up an efficient, dynamic and modern system to completely eliminate child marriages across the state.
Moving beyond traditional law enforcement, the ‘Child Marriage Free Maharashtra’ campaign has actively engaged ordinary citizens at every level.
The Minister further said that this collective, community-driven approach has achieved significant results; The administration has successfully stopped 1,400 child marriages last year and 1,450 in the current year.
According to Minister Tatkare, child marriage is deeply linked to socio-economic vulnerabilities, and the Department of Women and Child Development is focusing on directly tackling these root causes.
He said a major demographic factor is the movement of large numbers of migrant workers across the state, especially in the Marathwada region. Since parents work as daily wage laborers throughout the day, leaving a 12 to 14 year old daughter alone at home raises serious safety concerns. This particular insecurity often leads concerned families to seek early marriage.
A statement issued by the minister’s office said that to tackle this problem, the department has set up special ‘children’s homes’ shelters, where these young girls can live in complete safety and continue their education without any interruption. Furthermore, to ensure continued state assistance, a modern tracking portal has been launched for minor children of migrant workers. While these children usually go to Anganwadis in their native villages, the digital system ensures that when families migrate to districts for work, children are easily enrolled at the nearest local Anganwadi, ensuring that no one is left out.
Emphasizing a zero tolerance policy, the Department of Women and Child Development is taking aggressive steps to ensure that the law acts as a real deterrent.
Minister Tatkare said that we have started registering cases not only against the parents who organize child marriages, but also against the priest who conducts the marriage, the middlemen who assist in it and the guests who attend the marriage. She confirmed that she was personally monitoring the process.
He further said that this strict legal stance has given a strong message to the society.
–IANS
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