KARACHI: A teenage boy in India escaped being forced into an arranged marriage by reporting against his own family to the authorities.
The boy named Prakash Prajapat, 16, from Jodhpur, in western Indian, was forced to marry a thirteen-year-old girl of his parents’ choice from a neighbouring town.
He was informed of his approaching marriage only in a week’s time before.
The young boy asked a charity group to help him as the girl was a complete stranger for him.
After the disapproval from parents’ side, he contacted a Trust for child marriages, which then sent a police team to put a stop to the illegal ceremony just moments before the ceremony.
Child weddings are common in rural India despite the marriage of a girl aged below 18 or a boy aged below 21 being illegal under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006.
“When I first met Prakash, he cried and pleaded for my help. He was desperate not to marry,” said Kriti Bharti, who heads Sarathi Trust, a campaign group against child marriages.
The families became apprehensive about the involvement of the Trust and decided to move the ceremony to a different date in a secret location.
But Prakash texted Kriti Bharti about his situation from his mobile phone and she organised a team of police officers to stop the proceedings.
The parents were taken to the court and banned from marrying the young bride and the groom for five years.
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