Bhubaneswar: Strengthening women’s safety mechanisms and preventing child marriage in vulnerable communities will be key priorities for Odisha, Deputy Chief Minister Pravati Parida said Friday.
Chairing a review meeting of the Women and Child Development department, Parida stressed the need to improve support systems for women survivors and strengthen coordination among police, health, legal and rehabilitation services.
The state aims to bolster One Stop Centres and Women Helpline 181, besides establishing more effective mechanisms to support survivors. Preventing child marriage will involve community participation, village-level mapping of vulnerable areas and focused awareness campaigns in the 12 identified districts.
Workplace safety will also receive attention through measures to strengthen implementation of the Prevention of Sexual Harassment (POSH) framework and the SHe-Box portal.
The review meeting outlined Odisha’s goals across four key areas: nutrition and early childhood development, child protection under Mission Vatsalya, women’s safety and women’s empowerment. Parida emphasised time-bound implementation, interdepartmental coordination and robust monitoring to ensure measurable outcomes.
Under women’s empowerment, the state plans to expand crèches and hostels for working women, strengthen the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao programme and improve coordination between the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana and Odisha’s Mamata scheme.
It also aims to roll out a Women’s Economic Empowerment Framework across all 30 districts to track women’s workforce participation, earnings and entrepreneurship, with district-level targets and monitoring mechanisms.
The state will organise a summit to deliberate on these priorities and strengthen coordination for their implementation.
The goals follow the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development’s national-level departmental summit held in New Delhi October 8 and 9.
