In Uttarakhand, both boys and girls are married at a young age, even today most of the villages are such where marriages are conducted at a young age. Now the Uttarakhand High Court has expressed deep concern over the fact that a large number of young men and women are getting married at a young age and are coming to the High Court for protection. In the earlier hearing, the court had summoned Secretary Child Welfare Chandresh Yadav in the case, who appeared in the court today. The court directed Chandresh Kumar to prepare a plan in two weeks to make people aware in this regard and explain the seriousness of the POCSO Act and present it in the court and organize these programs through various related departments in sensitive areas through methods like dramas, short films. The case will be heard after two weeks when the plan is presented before the court.
These were the reasons for the court’s concern
The division bench of Chief Justice G. Narender and Justice Alok Mehra, while hearing one such case, said that this trend is worrying and needs to be paid attention to. In the case, a 19-year-old youth had sought protection from the girl’s family after marrying a girl of his age. The court said that the number of such cases is increasing where often the petitioners are juveniles. Although the right to choose one’s life partner is legally recognized, the trend of marriage among minor children is increasing, whereas it is difficult to have a sense of responsibility at such a young age.
Severe punishment to the youth under the POCSO Act
The court also said that there have been cases where, as per the claim of the girl’s parents, the daughter turned out to be a minor and on this basis the youth was given severe punishment under the POCSO Act and the married woman was left alone. In many cases, after a dispute, the girl also became a mother and the husband went to jail under POCSO or after maturing, the couple separated and the child became destitute. This also encourages other crimes.
The court gave these important instructions
The court directed Secretary Education Chandresh Kumar to prepare a plan in two weeks to make people aware in this regard, especially to explain the seriousness of the POCSO Act to parents and present it to the court so that they can guide the children. The court directed that these programs should be aggressively organized in sensitive areas through the Education Department, Rural Development Departments, Anganwadi, local administration and paralegal volunteers. Methods like dramas, short films should also be used to sensitize young adults.