It has been confirmed that a 12-year-old boy from Kerala has fathered a child with a 16-year-old.
According to a report in The Hindu, the 12-year-old is perhaps the youngest father in India.
A couple of months ago he was booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act after a teenaged girl, who gave birth to a baby girl, claimed that he had impregnated her.
The identity of the young parents and the baby are being withheld in accordance with the provisions of the POCSO Act.
After a DNA test was conducted to verify the claim of the girl, it was confirmed that the 12-year-old is the biological father of the child.
Dr. P.K. Jabbar, Professor and Head of the Endocrinology Department of the Medical College Hospital, Thiruvananthapuram, told The Hindu that the boy could have a medical condition called "precocious puberty." In this condition, a child attains puberty at a much earlier age.
Dr. Jabbar said that no incident of a boy becoming a father at the age of 12 had come to his notice earlier.
Both the boy and the girl will now be reportedly be prosecuted as per the Juvenile Justice Act.
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