Colombo: A Sri Lankan couple are under investigation for deploying hundreds of schoolchildren to carry the train of the bride’s saree during a wedding ceremony.

De Livera said deploying students for such ceremonies during school hours was against the law, and violators could face up to 10 years in prison.

About 250 students from a state-owned school carried the bride’s two-mile train as she and the groom walked down a main road in the central district of Kandy on Thursday, local media reported. Another 100 students served as flower girls at the wedding.

The pupils were from a school named after the provincial chief minister Sarath Ekanayaka, who was a special guest at the wedding, according to media reports, which also said the saree was the longest ever worn by a bride in sri Lanka.

The National Child Protection Authority said it was investigating the incident.

About 250 school students carried the bride’s two-mile long saree

“We have started an investigation,” said the NCPA chairman, Marini de Livera. “We are going all out because we don’t want this to become a trend.”

De Livera said deploying students for such ceremonies during school hours was against the law, and violators could face up to 10 years in prison.

“What they [the wedding party] did is a violation of child rights,” de Livera said. “Depriving children of education, risking their security and harming their dignity are criminal offences.”