Erode District Collector Rajagopal Sungara has introduced a new training method for school girls to prevent child marriage through playway method to create awareness among them on the issue.
Under this scheme, two boxes with cute little cards containing awareness slogans are provided to each government school.
The box is called 'Bommi.' Girls studying from sixth to plus 2 use it.
The awareness words in this card explain the evils of falling in love especially for girls. How their education and health will be affected? What will be the effect if the child is born to girls below 18 years of age? How to focus on studies? How to control the mind from love affair? As far as Erode district is concerned, 542 child marriages took place last year. All of them booked under the POCSO Act as marrying girls below the age of 18 is an offence.
80 to 90 percent of the cases related to love affair. In many places, parents conduct such marriages to discharge their responsibility.
In some places these marriages are performed by girls without the knowledge of their parents.
Getting pregnant out of such wedlock could create many problems.
The love affairs problems have become more common during the Corona era. A method of studying through cell phones was introduced.
Then there were problems like connecting with many new people through cell phone and watching unnecessary things through cell phone and getting emotional.
That problem continues even now. Because once they got used to the cell phone, there is still a tendency to go the wrong way by using the cell
phone.
So, the school students must not be allowed to use cell phones, the teachers said.