Timely intervention of Jharsuguda Childline officials foiled a child marriage and the victim, who is a 14-year-old girl was rescued here on Sunday.
Childline Co-coordinator Ashish Panda informed the 14-year-old minor girl, a resident of Bolangir, was about to get married with a 24-year-old youth, a resident of Belpahar. As per their marriage Invitation card, the marriage was scheduled to take place on Sunday at Radha Krishna Temple at Junadihi, Belpahar.
"On receiving this information, we, along with the help of Belpahar police, had first visited the Radha Krishna Temple of Belpahar, but the scheduled marriage venue was changed from Belpahar to the groom's uncle house situated at Bajrangpada in H Kantapali, Jharsuguda.
However, after tracking the mobile number of the groom's father, we got the information about their location and with the help of BTM police officials, we rescued the minor girl who was about to get married. In this incident, the youth and the family members of both the family fled the spot," said Panda, adding, "We rescued the minor girl and produced her in front of Child Welfare Committee (CWC) and as per the CWC order, we have kept her in Shelter home till their parents arrive."
The victim girl said, "My mother insisted me for the marriage. I was very much interested to pursue my studies but only after getting assurance from the boy's family for allowing me to study further, I agreed."
