Bhubaneswar: In its bid to make Odisha child marriage free by 2030, the State Government directed all the collectors of the 30 districts to keep a strict vigil on such incidents and take preventive measures.
The State Government had already launched a multi-sectoral, strategic action to end child marriage in November, 2019. Based on the strategy the state government had taken various preventive steps in 16 districts with engagement of community level institutions and non-government organisations (NGOs), where child marriage is above the State’s average.
As a result of which 25 villages of four districts have been declared child marriage-free states by November 14, 2020. 12 villages in Sonepur district, 10 in Boudh, 2 in Nayagarh and one in Deogarh are now won the child marriage-free tag.
Not a single child marriage has been reported in these areas for the past two years.
As per a recent survey by the Sonepur district administration, UNICEF and ActionAid, not a single marriage has taken place in 12 villages of the district in the past two years. That is why we have declared these villages child marriage-free areas on Children’s Day this year,” said Sonepur Collector Manisha Banerjee.
“Awareness among the parents should be created to fulfill this aim. The district administration is organising many programmes to create awareness among the people,” she added.
The four district administrations are organizing many competitions in scholls and college levels to create awareness among students which help them to say no for child marriage.
ActionAid’s National Manager for Prohibition of Child Marriage, Ghashiram Panda, said, “The district administrations have also stopped several child marriages in different villages of Odisha during the COVID-19 pandemic, ActionAid’s National Manager for Prohibition of Child Marriage.”
PNN