Chennai, June 18
Authorities in Tamil Nadu’s Krishnagiri district have uncovered at least six cases in which families of underage girls allegedly tampered with Aadhaar card details to hide child marriages and avoid legal consequences.
The incidents were reported over the last six months from the Kelamangalam block.
The fraud came to light through the Pregnancy and Infant Cohort Monitoring and Evaluation (PICME) system -- a digital tracking platform used by the state health department to monitor pregnant women.
During routine data entry, health officials noticed discrepancies between the girls’ Aadhaar-linked PICME records and the physical Aadhaar cards they carried.
In one case, a 14-year-old girl married to a 29-year-old man came to the Nagamangalam Primary Health Centre in late May to register her pregnancy. While her Aadhaar card listed her age as 20, PICME records correctly showed her actual age as 14. Upon investigation, the girl and her husband admitted that the Aadhaar date of birth had been altered at a local browsing centre in Denkanikottai for Rs 200 to evade arrest under child marriage laws.