Indian, Pakistani survivors of forced marriages to pitch for abandoning practice

London, Apr. 7 (ANI): In the first scheme of its kind in Britain, survivors of forced marriages, mostly Indians and Pakistanis, will travel the country next month to describe the ordeals they went through in an attempt to try to persuade communities to abandon the practice.

According to Fox News, men and women who were forced to marry against their wishes, will journey to 12 cities to tell teachers and police officers to be extra vigilant about children going missing during the summer holidays.

Each summer, hundreds of girls and boys, largely from South Asian communities, travel with their families to India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, where they are forced into marriages.

Those working to stop the practice say the period just before the summer holiday is always their busiest time of the year. They hope that prompting survivors to tell their own stories will ncourage children at risk to come forward and local authorities to take those fears seriously when they do. (ANI)