New Delhi/Bhubaneswar: UNICEF Saturday lauded Odisha’s efforts in establishing a number of advocacy groups that have significantly helped curb child marriages and empower young girls.
UNICEF’s India representative Cynthia McCaffrey praised the country’s strides in child protection, noting the establishment of juvenile justice boards, child welfare committees, and special POCSO courts as tangible progress. McCaffrey was speaking at the two-day National Annual Stakeholders’ Consultation on Safeguarding the Girl Child: Towards a Safer and Enabling Environment for Her in India, organised by the Supreme Court’s Juvenile Justice Committee in collaboration with UNICEF India. The event coincided with the International Day of the Girl Child.
“The flagship programmes such as Mission Vatsalya, Mission Shakti, and Beti Bachao Beti Padhao have laid foundations that can go to scale,” she said.
From adolescent clubs in Madhya Pradesh to Bharosa centres in Telangana and advocacy groups in Odisha and Rajasthan, McCaffrey highlighted successful community-level interventions that are “helping delay child marriages and empower young girls.”
The two-day consultation workshop was also attended by Union Women and Child Development Minister Annapurna Devi, who said, “854 one-stop centres for women have been established across India with the help of the Nirbhaya Fund to provide shelter, counselling, medical aid, and legal assistance to survivors of violence.”
Devi noted that 56 per cent of legally adopted children in India last year were girls, reflecting a shift in social attitudes. “Now, girls are not seen as a burden but as a beacon of hope,” she said.
The minister also spoke about the women helpline 181, women help desks at police stations, and initiatives such as working women’s hostels and Shakti Sadhan, highlighting their role in strengthening women’s safety and self-dependence.
Devi said “women’s power” lies at the core of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of a developed India by 2047 and that the government’s integrated approach through Mission Shakti, Mission Vatsalya, and Mission Poshan 2.0 aims to advance women’s safety, empowerment, and self-reliance.
Agencies
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