A BRUTAL attack on a child welfare officer who tried to prevent three young girls from being married off in a mass ceremony has provoked outrage in India over the ancient practice of child marriage.

Hundreds of government workers and social activists had been mobilised in the states of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh to prevent the illegal mass weddings of under-age boys and girls on the occasion of Akshaya Tritiya, a lunar holy day regarded as particularly auspicious for weddings.

Shakuntala Verma, a government child welfare officer, travelled to Bhangarh village in the tribal-dominated Dhar district in Madhya Pradesh after receiving a tip-off that a family there was planning to marry off their young daughters in such a ceremony.

She demanded proof of the girls’ ages but was forced to leave after family members threatened her. Later that evening a visitor turned up at her door armed with a sword and began slashing at her.

As she put up her hands to protect herself, one was severed and the other badly injured. Police are now seeking the arrest of the girls’ father, the officer’s alleged assailant. She remains in hospital in Indore fighting for her life after a nine-hour operation to re-attach her hand.

The brutality of the attack has shocked the country and renewed debate about steps to halt the practice of child marriage, outlawed since 1948 but continuing almost unhindered in the tribal belts of rural northern India.

Around 200,000 marriages of minors under the age of 18 are said to take place every year, although the illegality of the practice and the fact that such marriages are not registered makes the exact number hard to determine.

The bride and groom, in some cases, are little more than toddlers, although the majority are in their teens.

Most child marriages in India take place on two auspicious holy days: Akshaya Tritiya, which fell on Wednesday, and Akha Teej, which falls in September. Police are often bribed to ignore such ceremonies, leaving the task of preventing them to unprotected child welfare workers such as Mrs Verma.

Child marriage is an ancient practice in India dating back more than 4,000 years and comes recommended by the Kama Sutra, which cautions that a girl who has “fully arrived at puberty” should be avoided as a wife. Until the 1860s, girls were routinely married off at 8 or 9. Later that decade the Indian Penal Code outlawed intercourse with a wife younger than 10.

In 1929 the first Child Marriage Restraint Act was enacted, taking the lower age limit up to 12. In 1948 the age was raised to 18 for girls and 21 for boys.

But the practice has lived on in rural Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, partly, say critics, because of a lack of political will to stop it.

Babulal Gaur, the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, caused outrage when he said after the attack on Mrs Verma that “no serious action” would be taken against those who forced their children into such marriage. “Social customs are stronger than laws,” he argued.

Late last year, however, the Government put forward a Bill demanding that all marriages in India be registered as a way of preventing child marriage. At present few marriages are recorded.

Under the proposed law parents, relatives and presiding priests could be charged and given jail sentences of up to two years. Under existing law the maximum sentence is one month.

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