Bhubaneswar: Expressing serious concern over the prevalence of child marriages in eastern states, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Thursday urged the state governments to adopt zero tolerance towards child marriages in their states.
Speaking at the inaugural function of the Regional Conference on Child Marriage here, NHRC secretary-general Ambuj Sharma has urged the state government to ensure strict enforcement of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act.
“In this conference we will discuss various challenges faced by the enforcing agencies for effective implementation of the Act and also consider modalities needed for tracking, recording, reporting and follow-up of child marriage incidents,” said Sharma.
NHRC member SC Sinha said that child marriage is a serious violation of human rights. “Protection of childhood security and children’s dignity is one of the pressing concerns of the world today. To end child marriage we have to create awareness among the people and explain them its ill effects. Parents need to be sensitised about the fact that it has life-long adverse impact on their children.” Sinha said.
The silent social sanction for child marriage needs to be eradicated from society. More and more educational facilities and employment opportunities for girls need to be created and social eco-system ensuring the security of girls in educational institutions must to be enhanced, the member stated.
According to National Family Health Survey-4, West Bengal and Bihar are top states vis-à-vis child marriages recording 40.7 per cent and 39.1 per cent respectively, followed by Jharkhand 38 per cent and Rajasthan 35.4 per cent. Orissa is in 13th position in the list with 21.3 per cent child marriages.
Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi, who was also present at the meet, said that fast reduction in child marriage rate in Orissa could be possible because of the awareness activities and schematic interventions of the government over the last years.
Padhi mentioned that all the women and girl child development programmes of the state government aim to abolish child marriage. The scheme of establishing a number of girls’ hostels in the tribal areas helped to retain about half-a-million tribal girls in educational institutions and this has led to prevention of their marriage at an early age.
As per Mamata scheme of the state government, assistance is given only to mothers who are above 19 years of age. Around 1.5 million mothers are being benefited through this scheme, the Chief Secretary said.
Besides, he said, 30 per cent of the seats in skill development programmes have been reserved for women and girls and state targets to take this to 50 per cent in next couple of years to encourage the parents and girls to continue education, which, in turn, will help to prevent child marriage.
Additional Chief Secretary, Home, Asit Kumar Tripathy said that because of the continuous endeavors during the last years a visible structure has been put into place to prevent crime against women and girl child.
Tripahy mentioned that now 537 women and child desks are operational at police station level, while and 37 Integrated Anti-Human Trafficking Units are functioning in different parts of the state. Police in every district of the state have a specific unit to investigate into crimes against girls and women.
Women and Child Development Secretary Chitra Arumugam stated the percentage of marriage of girls below the age of 18 was around 46 per cent in 1992-93, which reduced to 37 per cent in 2005-06 and further to 21 per cent in 2015-16.
PNN
