Letter to PM Modi saved 16-year-old girl from getting forcibly married

New Delhi: A 16-year-old girl had a dream of studying further but it was soon crushed as she was asked to tie the knot and get married as per her parent's wishes.

Following that, the girl wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to save her from getting married which worked in her favour.

As soon as the Prime Minister's Office received the letter, they directed the concerned authorities to save her. The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) were able to save the girl from getting child marriage.

An official from NCPCR told Millennium Post that the girl wrote the letter this month and as the letter was received, the PMO took quick action and told everything to Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) and then the case was handled by NCPCR.

"The girl did not want that her family should know about this so we approached the school from where we talked to the teacher who persuaded her parents to not marry her so young. After several persuasion, her father was convinced that they will not marry their girl soon," said the official. During the whole process, the team of WCD and NCPCR kept a tab on the whole situation.

The official said that as the girl did not want that her family to know about this, they took the route of the school to convince the girl's family to not to marry her.

"We never went to her home but through school, we were able to convince them," said an official.

The family hailed from Rajasthan and lives in Delhi. NCPCR members stated that so far they have come to know that her mother was ill and wanted that her daughter should be married soon but the girl in her letter stated that she wanted to study.

The NCPCR team also met the girl on the stair where she had told everything to her. After the whole incident, NCPCR members kept a continuous tab and also told the girl to contact them anytime.

Yashwant Jain from NCPCR told this newspaper that they take every case seriously related to children.

"When we came to know about the complaints regarding children we took quick action as we are here to protect the rights of children," said Jain.