DCW saves 13-year-old girl from child marriage

New Delhi: The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) on Monday claimed that they saved a 13-year-old girl from getting married in Palam area of Dwarka district.

DCW chairperson Swati Maliwal said that it is a matter of shame that in today's India little girls are being married off in the national capital. According to the DCW, the Commission received a call from Child Helpline, Kurukshetra, that a minor is forcibly being married to a man who is 25 years old. The commission immediately deputed senior counsellors who visited the child marriage victim's house in Palam.

"The team was shocked to note that wedding arrangements were going on in the house. The little girl was dressed up as a bride and was being taken to UP for her marriage," said a DCW official. Further, it was learned that the victim belonged to a poor family and her mother was a domestic help while her father was a daily wage labourer.

The DCW team immediately involved Delhi Police in the matter and informed the SHO about the situation. The Police team reached the house with DCW counsellor and ordered to halt the wedding preparations.

The press statement of DCW claimed that while counselling the minor victim a crucial detail was learned, the supposed groom's brother who is 35 years old had previously sexually abused the minor victim and wanted to have the girl married to her brother. So, the minor victim experienced sexual abuse and was about to be married off as a child to a man much older, the crime was going to be repeated multiple times over the course of her life.

The girl was then sent to the Child Welfare Committee who has now placed the girl in a shelter home. The commission shall try and rehabilitate her. The commission has taken strong exception to the fact that an FIR has not yet been registered by Police in the matter.