Collector: No funds for Hingoli gram panchyat if child marriage found

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:Hingoli district administration has come out with a novel measure to prevent child marriages, by threatening local village bodies of stalling their development funds.District collector Rahul Gupta has issued a stern warning to local village bodies that their development funds will be withheld if child weddings were detected in their jurisdiction.Gupta added that there will be official scrutiny for any female student who is absent from her school for over 10 days."If female students remain absent for 10 consecutive days, the school principal must immediately inform the Department of Women and Child Development. The official squads will then trace the girl to detect whether the students are being subjected to child marriage," he said.Authorities prevented 61 child marriages fromApril 1, 2025, to March 31, 2026 in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district. Tehsil limits of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar reported maximum 25 such cases, followed by Paithan (8), Gangapur (8), Sillod (seven), Phulambri (4), Vaijapur (3) and Kannad, Soygaon (2) and Khultabad (2), show official data."Out of the 61 cases of prevented child marraiges, offenses were registered in five instances under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (PCMA), 2006. While in two cases, the victims were provided protection in children's homes. In the remaining cases, after preventing child marriages, written undertakings were obtained from the parents," Mahendra Darade, District Women and Child Development Officer for Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar said.Marathwada, whose many rural areas are still considered vulnerable for child marriages, saw organised measures on Sunday to avert such illegal weddings that in past found to have occured on Akshay Tritiya.