Pregnant girls under 18 in Karnataka not on govt portal

Highlights

• A study under ‘Children in Governance’ has found that 40 married pregnant girls below the age of 18, from BPL families in Kampli taluk of Ballari district, are not registered on the Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) portal, and have not got mother and child cards and benefits from Mathruvandana or any government schemes.

• Karnataka Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (KCPCR) member H C Raghavendra said that 38 kids of these mothers have not got birth certificates, and are not getting nutritious food provided between six months to three years of age. If girl children do not get birth certificates before two years of age, they cannot claim Bhagyalakshmi bonds, he said.

• The study was part of the project taken up by Child Rights Trust. Raghavendra was speaking at a state-level consultation on ‘The Role of Civil Society Organisations in Prevention of Child Marriages’, organised by Child Rights Trust (CRT), Initiatives for Marriage Adolescent Girls Empowerment (IMAGE) and others on Wednesday.

• “During review meetings of KCPCR in other districts too, we found that data of pregnant women below 18 years is not mentioned on the RCH portal. Sex with girls below 18 years attracts the POCSO Act, even if they are married. The authorities may not be entering data because under Section 21(2) of POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act, hiding information about the incident is also a crime. If adolescent mothers have to get government benefits, they are asked to produce Medico Legal Case report and FIR under POCSO registered with police, or are forced to give false age,” he said.   Meanwhile, director of CRT Vasudev Sharma said the Department of Women and Child Development (DWCD), formed four years ago to know the status of adolescent children, is not active.