Awareness drive on child marriage, female foeticide

District president of the association T Ranganathan said that the event was organised in that village as child marriages were prevalent there. He added that child marriage was one of the most important reasons for maternal deaths of mother and child, premature delivery and low birth weight of mental retardedness among babies. 

Stating that according to the 2011 census more than two lakh minor girls – aged below 18 years were married – he added that 65,000 of them got married when they were 15-years-old or lesser. D Ranganathan said that the child marriage ratio in Namakkal was more than the State’s average. 

On the other hand, he said that the National Family Health Survey statistics for 2015 shows that Namakkal had a female sex ration of 850 girls for every 1000 boys, which was also the lowest in the State. In the programme on Monday, the students popularised the child helpline numbers and those who could be contacted by the villagers to anonymously alert to stop child marriages or other forms of violence against the girl child. SDPGA is planning to conduct more such awareness programmes in Kolli Hills as incidents of child marriage are more in tribal habitations there.