A child marriage was prevented on Tuesday evening after intervention of some child rights activists, officials and police at the Barahanath temple at Jajpur Town.
The marriage of the 16-year-old girl of Khosalapur village with 42 -year-old Bidyadhar Parida, son of Narasingh Parida of Chamasamadei village, was prevented after rights activists and police rushed to the village to prevent the child marriage in the temple.
The girl passed HSC examination two years back and wanted to read in a college. But the poor parents of the girl fixed her marriage with a married man, said Child Protection Officer of Jajpur Priyanka Samal.
“After rescuing the boy and girl, we sheltered the girl in a Government run short stay home in Jajpur Town. We will admit the girl in a college,” added Samal.
India had the highest number of unregistered children under age five between 2000 and 2015 and the second-highest number of child marriages, according to a UN report which said the country still needs to improve immunisation coverage and stop gender-based sex selection. Poverty coupled with illiteracy forces poor parents to marry off their daughters at an early age, said Dr Suresh Chandra Dalei, a social worker of Jajpur.