The Indian Express                           08.03.2013

4,000 married teens in city, 1,726 of them are mothers: PMC survey

The numbers have certainly declined but there has been no full stop yet to child marriage.

The latest family survey report from the Pune Municipal Corporation shows that nearly 4,000 girls in the 15-19 age group are married and many of them even had as many as three to four children.

The city family welfare bureau's report shows that out of 1.46 lakh couples identified from April 2012 till date for creating awareness about family planning measures, at least 4,000 were teenage girls.

Out of a population of 7.8 lakh surveyed from 113 slum pockets in the city, there were 1.46 lakh couples eligible for family planning in 2012-13. A total of 1,05,832 underwent family planning procedures that included sterilization. As many as 84,950 women underwent operations and 256 men opted for vasectomy.

Shockingly, there still is a population of young girls in the age bracket of 15-19 years who are married and have two-three children each. According to the report on couples who use family planning methods, there are 1,726 teenage girls in the age group 15-19 years who have protected sex and 697 of them have one child while 655 have two each. A total of 153 have three children while 48 girls have four children each.

There are 3,394 girls in the age group 15-19 years who do not have protected sex and of them, seven have four children each.

A total of 122 girls have had three children while 192 girls have two and 1,286 have one child each.

Kranti Salve, one of the coordinators of India Sponsorhip Committee told Newsline that there has been a decline in marriage of minor girls, or child marriage under the Child Marriage Restraint Act.

However, specific communities like Lamani and others who migrate from other states still get their daughters married at a young age.

According to the PMC survey report, there are 18,451 couples who do not use any family planning methods. However, it is tubectomy that is commonly done vis a vis vasectomies and other family planning control methods.

At the state health department, Assistant Director Dr S G Kulkarni said that an eligible couple survey for family planning is done across corporations and municipal councils and in the last financial year 1.36 crore were identified.

"A total of 40.22 lakh couples, however, do not use any family planning method and it is this group we have to focus upon," he said.