While the state government is geared up to prevent child marriages on Akha Teej in Rajasthan, details available with the state Assembly shows that 82 MLAs got married when they were not at a legally marriageable age.
Among them, 13 are either ministers in the Gehlot government or parliamentary secretaries. The list included ruling Congress as well as Opposition BJP MLAs.
According to the data, most of them got married when they were below the age of 21 (among males) and below 18 (among females). However, such marriages were made long back when there was a little hue and cry over child marriages. The list of these 82 MLAs shows that 47 MLAs of the ruling Congress got married when they were below the marriageable age while 26 BJP MLAs fell in the same category.
Most such marriages were solemnised after the Special Marriage Act, 1954 came into force. The act set 21 years for males and 18 years for female to get married.
The state government launched a campaign to prevent child marriages and big advertisements were placed in the local media appealing people not to allow child marriages. The state government, however, claimed that the number of child marriages has gone down. Women’s groups say that the villagers have now shifted the marriages to the auspicious day of Peepal Punya instead of Akha Teej. The authorities directed village-level government functionaries to keep a vigil on Akha Teej which falls on Sunday.