Child brides from Maharashtra were sold in Gujarat, Rajasthan: Devendra Fadnavis

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. File Pic

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday said that child brides from the state were sold in Rajasthan and Gujarat.

This came from Fadnavis in a written answer to a question on child brides and women trafficking raised by Legislative Council member Mahadev Jankar.

A child bride is a girl under the age of 18 who is married off to an adult man. This practice is a crime in India.

Also Read: Maharashtra Budget 2023 Highlights: Cash benefit for farmers, financial aid for girls - Top announcements

Fadnavis said, "As many as 24 criminal cases have been filed for the alleged kidnapping of women and child brides on the pretext of marriage in January this year. In 2021 calendar year, 448 accused persons were arrested."

The deputy CM said that poor women and child brides from the state were sold in Rajasthan and Gujarat.

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who is also the state Finance Minister, on Thursday presented the Eknath Shinde-led government's first budget for the year 2023-24 in the state Assembly.

The state Budget for 2023-24 proposed Rs 6,000 assistance to farmers and Re 1 crop insurance scheme while also offering relief in professional tax to working women, 50 per cent discount on ticket fares in state-run buses to women and a new scheme for the girl child.

Announcing a crop insurance scheme for farmers at Re 1, the deputy CM said the government will bear the financial burden of Rs 3,312 crore.

"Under the earlier crop insurance scheme, the farmers had to pay two per cent of the crop insurance premium. Now, the farmers will not need to pay anything as the government will pay the premium amount," he said.

Apart from this, the budget also proposed the 'Namo Shetkari Mahasanman Scheme', under which every farmer in the state will get Rs 6,000 in addition to the Rs 6,000 he gets under the central scheme (PM Kisan Samman Nidhi) every year. As many as 1.15 crore farmer families will benefit from it and the government will bear a burden of Rs 6,900 crore, he added.

(With inputs from PTI)