Coimbatore: Chennai tops the list of districts in TN with most married girls under 15 years of age, according to recent data released by Census 2011. With 5,480 girls under the age of 15 married, Chennai is followed by industrialized Coimbatore that had 3,025 married girls below the age of 15.Madurai, Tirunelveli, Tirupur and Salem too showed more than 2,000 girls under the age of 15 who were married.Activists working against child marriage say that while child marriages are predominant in rural areas, the numbers are higher in urban areas because of more population.While under-developed states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have reported more than 1.5 lakh child marriages, according to the Census 2011 data, developed states like Tamil Nadu have also reported significant cases of child marriage.In Tamil Nadu, according to a recent data on fertility published by Census 2011, there were 82.52 lakh girls under the age of 15 when the data was recorded, and 62,500 of these were married.The data also includes girls who were widowed and separated. The Census figures also reveal that 16,855 underage girls had given birth to at least one child.The number of child marriages in the state could be higher as there is no data available for married people in the age limit of 15-18. Census 2011 has recorded data for people in the age group of 15-19.Child rights activists and ground-level workers who have prevented child marriages say that in most child marriages, the family decides to marry off the daughters due to weak economic status."In a village near Alandurai in Coimbatore, people of a particular community get girls married once they attain puberty. They feel that it is unsafe for girls to remain unmarried after attaining puberty. Girls drop out of school too," said Krishnaraj K, a child rights activist.A similar situation prevails in Gundri village near Sathyamangalam, says another child activist D Rajan. "There is no higher secondary school in this village which falls in the forest area of Sathyamangalam. The closest higher secondary school is nearly 40 km away. So, most girls are married off, after they complete Class 8 or 10," Rajan said. Most child marriages are either forced, or are a result of elopement. "In case of girls between 15 years and 18 years, they elope and get married," said Uma Devi, coordinator of Childline in Coimbatore.There is a watchdog committee at the village panchayat level to curb child marriages. "The Census figures only show these committees have to be strengthened. Most cases occur without the notice of the committee, but, there are chances of the members being ignorant too," said Uma Devi.