South Dinajpur admin takes steps to eradicate child marriage in dist

BALURGHAT: South Dinajpur district administration has launched a special initiative to eradicate child marriage. A high-level meeting on this issue was recently held at Rabindra Bhavan in Balurghat. According to official data, the incidence of child marriage in the district has been rising at an alarming rate.

Statistics reveal that, on average, 2,500 to 3,000 underage girls are married off each year, with 23 per cent of them becoming pregnant. However, the actual numbers may be even higher, as many cases go unreported. In response, the administration has adopted stringent measures to curb child marriage, aiming to make South Dinajpur a child marriage-free district by 2025.

As part of these measures, the administration has warned priests and imams against officiating underage marriages. The district consists of eight blocks —Balurghat, Tapan, Gangarampur, Kumarganj, Kushmandi, Harirampur, Hili and Banshihari. Among these, Kumarganj, Harirampur, Kushmandi and Tapan have the highest rates of child marriage.

The meeting was attended by District Judge and Chairman of the District Legal Services Authority Manas Basu, District Magistrate Bijin Krishna, Superintendent of Police Chinmay Mittal and other senior officials. Representatives from the Zilla Parishad, Gram Panchayats and Panchayat Samitis were also invited.

District Magistrate Bijin Krishna highlighted another concerning trend — an increasing number of underage girls going missing from various police station areas. He stated: “Many girls, influenced by romantic relationships, secretly marry, while others fall into the trap of traffickers and are taken to other states.

To combat this, the administration is implementing strict measures and utilising the ‘Pratyayi’ portal for awareness and surveillance.”