Kolkata,   A recent data released by the Ministry of Home Affairs that showed West Bengal in poor light on account of high rate of early marriages of girls in the state has prompted the principal opposition parties to launch a scathing attack on the Trinamool Congress-led state government.

The MHA data showed that 54.9 per cent of the girls in West Bengal are married before the age of 21, which is not only far above the national average of 29.5 per cent, but also highest among all the Indian states. At 54.6 per cent, neighbouring Jharkhand came second.

Following the release of the data, the question that is doing the rounds in Bengal is whether the state government's much-hyped 'Kanyashree' project, a financial assistance scheme for girl students to encourage them to go for higher studies instead of opting for early marriage, has lost its appeal?

According to Bengal BJP spokesman Samik Bhattacharya, in a state like West Bengal, where there are 45 lakh migrant workers and the state government's prime focus is to spend taxpayers' money behind festivals, the other key factors of women empowerment get neglected.

"As far as the government schemes are concerned, the common people never get their benefits unless they are close to the ruling party. So I am not really surprised that the MHA figures show a high rate of early marriages of girls in West Bengal," he said.

CPI(M) state secretary Md Salim said that besides the state government's negligence in checking early marriages of girls, a section of ruling party leaders is even patronising the evil of early marriages, especially in rural Bengal.

"Preventing social evils like early marriages requires socio-political movements to create awareness among the people. On the contrary, the ruling party leaders are often heckling activists who are individually trying to create awareness against early marriages. Trinamool is encouraging this social evil to retain their vote banks. So it is natural that the rate of early marriages among girls in West Bengal is high," Salim said.

Repeated attempts made by IANS to contact the state Women & Child Development Minister, Sashi Panja, failed as the calls went unanswered.