Girl cries foul, foils 10 child marriages

“Iwantto study but my parents have fixed my marriage. Please help me,” a frantic call for help from a 15-year-old in Kerala not only saved her but stopped nine more underage girls from being married off.

The call came from Karuvarakkundue, an impoverished village in the state’s Malappuram district, where child marriages are common and women become grandmothers even before they turn 40.

Childline officials rushed to the village after receiving the call on Sunday and found nine more girls under the age of 18 were to be wedded in the coming weeks when schools close for summer vacation. The would-be grooms were not underage.

The parents of the girls, mostly daily-wagers, want to marry them off young to avoid giving a big dowry — another problem that plagues economically backward Malappuram.

Malappuram is a Muslim majority district, where the community accounts for 70% of the population. Chidline volunteers said they initially contacted the local panchayat member but she refused to intervene, fearing a backlash from the villagers.

The volunteers then sought the help of district administration and social welfare board officers, who managed to talk the parents out of the wedding plans.

“Initially, the parents resisted our move. We had to hold several counselling sessions to make them aware of the dangers of child marriage,” Childline district coordinator Anwar Karakkadan said. “Some of the parents even told us that we would have to find a suitable match for their daughters once they were of marriageable age.”