Child marriage cases drop to 27%: Minister

New Delhi, Dec 21 : The percentage of girls married before legal age has gone down from 47.4 per cent in 2005-06 to 26.8 per cent in 2014-15, a Minister said on Thursday quoting the National Family Health Survey.

"As per census 2011, Rajasthan, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, West Bengal and Jharkhand are among the top states reporting the highest percentage of child marriage among both boys and girls," Minister of State for Women and Child Development Virendra Kumar said in a statement.

"Nil marriages were reported till nine years of age for both boys and girls."

He also stated that the Ministry has received more than 350 complaints relating to inappropriate behaviour including through portal 'She-box' -- an online complaint management system which was launched for registering complaints related to sexual harassment at workplace for women employees across all sectors.

Kumar said the government has approved a new scheme, Pradhan Mantri Mahila Shakti Kendra, which will empower rural women through community participation and cover 640 district level centres.

The scheme, which will continue till 2019-20, is envisaged to work at various levels and at the national level (domain based knowledge support) and state level (State Resource Centre for Women) technical support to the respective government on issues related to women is provided. 

"These centres will serve as a link between village, block and state level in facilitating women centric schemes and also give foothold for Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme at the district level," he added.