13-year-olds marriage stopped

TIRUCHY: Timely intervention by authorities averted the marriage of a 13-year-old girl with a 30-year-old lorry driver here on Monday.According to sources, J Mani, a lorry driver from  Puthanampatti, lost his wife when she was pregnant four months ago.  Since he wanted to marry again, Mani approached his maternal uncle in Thazhuthalaipatti, asking him to give his daughter, a class nine student in Mannachanallur, into marriage.The girl, who initially refused to marry her cousin, had to fall in line as her parents were firm in the marriage proposal. The marriage was scheduled to be conducted on Monday at a wedding hall in Sa. Ayyampalayam near Mannachanallur and preparations were on from Sunday. On Sunday evening, the Child Line, Tiruchy received an anonymous call stathat a child marriage was to take place at a wedding hall. Based on the information, Child Welfare Committee member advocate T Jayanti Ranee and the District Social Welfare Officer rushed to Thazhuthalaipatti and conducted inquiries.In the meantime, Mani’s relatives gheraoed the officials and tried to send away the girl through another passage. However, the officials passed on the information to the Mannachanallur police, who rescued the girl and brought her to the Collectorate on Sunday night.District Collector Jayashree Muralidharan instructed the officials concerned to keep her under the custody of the childline till Monday morning. On Monday, the Collector conducted an inquiry with the girl, her parents and the village heads. After the inquiry, the Collector warned the parents and the village heads and asked them to give a written statement assuring that they would not encourage child marriages. While the Collector was warning her parents, the girl broke down all of a sudden and appealed to Collector not to file a case against the parents.