Bihar continues in news, now for child marriages

In one case in Gaya, Welfare Department officials discovered that a 12-year-old girl had been married to 55-year-old S. Yadav in December. The officials lodged an FIR and the man — already married and with four children from his previous marriage — was arrested.

‘‘This is more prevalent than we thought. These cases were found when we were investigating the implementation of the Child Marriage Act,’’ said Welfare Secretary G.S. Kang.

The Welfare Department has now sent the file of 10 cases to Chief Minister Rabri Devi and has asked that all MPs and MLAs be notified about this widespread practice in their districts. ‘‘We never thought that 9- and 11-year-olds were being married off to older men,’’ Kang said, adding that they were going to take strict action and had already filed cases in various districts so that it prevented people from fixing such marriages.

In the last five months, according to the Welfare Department, four cases have been registered from Jamui district, three from Patna City, two from Munger district. District Welfare officials have registered all these cases.Social activists say child marriages are not uncommon but cases where 9-year-olds were being married off to 50 year-olds was uncommon.

‘‘In rural areas the thinking is that if the girl is not married off early then the family will lose honour. It’s all about honour,’’ said Viji Srinivasan who runs an NGO here.