Compiled by CHARLES RAMENDRAN, BEH YUEN HUI and R.ARAVINTAN
ALMOST 60,000 child marriages were prevented in the last two years in India, according to Malaysia Nanban.
A report published by civil groups in the country found that about 31% of 59,364 unions were stopped in the state of Bihar, followed by West Bengal (11%), Uttar Pradesh (11%), and Jharkhand (10%).
An estimated 60% of these cases involved girls between the ages of 16 and 18.
In India, child marriage is defined as those involving girls below 18 and boys below 21 years old.
The government is reportedly considering increasing the age for girls to 21 as well.
According to the report, 49,813 of the marriages were stopped through consultation with parents and awareness campaigns in the communities concerned.
Another 9,551 child marriages were prevented via the involvement of the authorities.
Apparently, West Bengal, Bihar, Assam, Odisha, and Maharashtra were the most “uncooperative” and made up 80% of the cases stopped by the authorities.
(The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.
