Chennai: Tamil Nadu Social Welfare Minister Ms B Valarmathi on Wednesday informed the State Assembly that 976 child marriages have been prevented in the state from 2008 to February this year.
Moving the demand for grants for her department, she said the AIADMK government headed by J Jayalalithaa was committed to eradicating child marriages in the state.
Stating that about 976 child marriages have been stopped in the state from 2008 to February 28 this year, she said copies of the Prohibition of Child Marriages Act and rules have been translated into Tamil and distributed free of cost to the public to create an awareness among them.
She said various programmes had been conducted on child marriage to create more awareness among the people and various welfare schemes implemented by the state government focus towards the education of girl children.
She said marriage assistance schemes have been designed
in such a manner that the benefits reaches the girl who had completed 18 years of age with the aim of eradicating the child marriages.
“In Tamil Nadu, the victims of child marriages are identified and rehabilitated according to their age with the help of NGOs”, Ms Valarmathi said. (UNI)