Bhubaneswar: The state government has now paved way for action against erring government officials who fail to undertake their responsibilities in stopping child marriages. The new rules framed by the government have empowered the Chief Child Marriage Protection Officers (CCMPOs) to take disciplinary action against the errant officials.
The state notified the Odisha Prohibition of Child Marriage Rules, 2019 December 9 to pave better ways to end child marriages in the state. It said that the state should appoint a CCMPO either from the Women and Child Development department or Mission Shakti to work towards Child Marriage Prohibition in the state.
The rules said, “The CCMPO to take disciplinary action against such officers who are not complying with their responsibilities.” The CCMPO has been asked to work with nodal officers and the Child Marriage Protection Officers in the district.
It has also empowered the District Collectors with more power to eradicate the menace of child marriage from the state. The new norms ask the Collectors to file quarterly reports on the cases of child marriages from the state. It has also empowered them to act as nodal officers for emergency situations.
According to the provision relating to creation of authentic database on child marriages, the Collectors are now bound to furnish quarterly statistics to the CCMPO. While the Protection of Child Marriage Act, 2006 had hardly any provision for emergency situations, the new rules confer such powers to the Collectors who will now be empowered to execute injunction in case of emergency when there is no scope to move the court.
“Earlier, different offices used to have different data on child marriages at district level. Now as the Collector has been asked to coordinate with the quarterly filing of the data we can get a single authentic data from a responsible office,” said Ghasiram Panda, Programme Manager, ActionAid.
He also added that the new rules have also well defined the roles of Child Marriage Protection Officer, Child Welfare Committee and also prescribed the responsibilities of the offices in terms of their role in stopping child marriages.
“Special emphasis has now been given on home visits by CMPOs to stop child marriage. The rules have also given prominence to creating awareness and also empowered the Odisha State Commission of Protection of Child Rights Commission (OSCPCR) to monitor the whole process relating to child marriages.”
The new rules have come into existence after the order of the Orissa High Court a few months back. A petition was earlier filed before it by Panda citing need of new child marriage rules citing an earlier order of the Supreme Court.
