Minor belles call cops to stop wedding bells

The district police had created awareness among rural girls about child marriage and the campaign seems to have paid off.

The parents of Priyanka Kamagond, a minor girl from Satalgaon, wanted to marry her off to Sidram Mendegar of Kudagi village of Indi taluk. The girl, who had heard about the evils of child marriages in the awareness programmes at the Police Mahila Jagruti camps and was in possession of the phone number of the Superintendent of Police (SP), rang him and informed him of the marriage. She also told him about her unwillingness to marry.

SP D C Rajappa immediately alerted the Indi PSI and directed him to rush to Kudagi village where the wedding was to take place. The parents of Priyanka and Sidram, along with the bride and groom, were summoned to the police station and were counselled about the law preventing marriages of minor girls. The parents gave in writing that they would not force the marriage on the girl till she attained the age of 18.

In a similar incident, the wedding of minor girl Bhagyashree Hirekurabar of Chabanur village with Nadigerappa Choudhari of Ambalnur village was stopped by the police, after taking her parents into confidence. In this case also, the girl had alerted the police.

Rajappa said that awareness created by the police through rural interaction programmes had proved to be of great help to the minor girls. He expressed happiness over the courage shown by the girls in approaching the police with a request to stop their marriages.