When the 17-year-old girl realised her parents planned to marry her off to a 40-year-old man, she fled to her aunt’s. When she learnt her aunt was in on it, too, she turned to a teen’s last resort: the Internet.

The girl was rescued and the forced marriage thwarted after she dialled a child helpline number she had found through an online trawl.

“We received a call on 1098 on Sunday afternoon. The girl urged us to rescue her,” Kandhamal district child helpline official Siba Shankar Behera told The Telegraph.

He said the helpline authorities immediately sought police help, rushed to the home of the teen’s aunt and rescued her. The girl is at a government-run shelter home.

The legal age for marriage for women in India is 18.

The tribal girl, a plus-two science student at a government college in Kandhamal, was visiting home during her summer vacation when her parents began preparing to marry her off, sources said.

After fighting with her parents in vain, she fled to her aunt’s home in another village. Once there, she learnt that the entire family supported her parents’ plan.

Realising her parents were headed to her aunt’s place to pick her up, she began desperately browsing the Internet for a way out. It came in the form of the child helpline number, 1098, an official said.

“We will arrange for her parents’ counselling. We shall tell him the importance of Beti Bachhao Beti Padhao,” Behera said. “She is a meritorious student. She is keen to pursue her studies, and we will support her.”

Sources said the girl has four sisters and a brother. “We cannot reveal details about her, keeping the dignity of the child in mind,”
Behera said.