File photo of Women and Child Welfare Minister Laxmi Hebbalkar
Credit: DH Photo
Belagavi: Notwithstanding the promulgation of harsher laws and the many campaigns launched by the state government to raise awareness about the issue, a shocking 2,623 cases of child marriage had been reported across Karnataka in 2025 (till October), with cases being reported even in Bengaluru.
Sharing this distressing data with the Assembly, Woman and Child Welfare Minister Laxmi Hebbalkar added that 8,351 cases of child marriage had been reported in the state in the past three years.
“Unfortunately, of these 8,351 reported cases, the authorities were unable to stop 2,170 weddings from taking place. But more than 6,150 weddings were stopped, and 2,170 FIRs registered,” the minister stated in her written reply to a question raised by BJP MLC Umanath Kotiyan.
One of the more revealing nuggets in the data shared by the minister was that Bengaluru city had reported 324 cases of child marriage from 2023 till October 2025.
Child rights activists said that prevention of child marriage was next to impossible without the support of the local community. “Community participation is most important. The public must be made aware that being witness to a child marriage is also a crime,” said activist Nagasimha G Rao, attributing the rise in infant mortality and maternal mortality rates to the failure to stop weddings involving children.
Rao emphasised the need for Child Marriage Prevention Officers to be active, besides stressing the need for continuous training. “Should these officers stumble upon instances of child marriage, they should take it upon themselves to stop them instead of waiting for the police,” he said.
Another activist Gopinath sought the inclusion of lessons on the evils of child marriage in the moral science curriculum for schoolchildren. “It should be introduced this academic year itself,” he said.
‘Amendments planned’
In one of her replies, Laxmi Hebbalkar said that the government was planning on bringing in amendments to punish people for planning child marriages and engaging a child with an adult for marriage. “Engaging a child or planning a child marriage is not considered a criminal offence under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006. So, we will be bringing an amendment to deem such acts criminal offences,” she said.