1/3rd Ganjam villages earn child-marriage free tag

BERHAMPUR: The Ganjam administration has declared around one-third of its villages as being free of child marriage. This takes the total number of such villages in the district to 1,032 out of 3,250. It has also declared 140 of the 286 wards in its 18 urban local bodies (ULB)s as child-marriage free.
The district social welfare officer (DSWO) submitted the list of these villages and wards to the government on Tuesday. Officials said these were accorded the child-marriage free tag on the recommendations of the panchayat and ward-level task force committees on the prohibition of this social ill.The recommendations were duly verified by the respective block development officers (BDO)s and child marriage prohibition officers (CMPO)s.
“As per their recommendations, not a single case of child marriage was reported in these villages after the district administration launched Nirbhaya Kadhi, which is an innovative awareness programme to prevent child marriage and ensure adolescent empowerment,” DSWO Surekha Mallick said. Launched here in September 2019, Nirbhaya Kadhi saw awareness programmes at the village-level, where the anganwadi and Asha workers educated adolescent girls about child marriage on the third Saturday of every month.
“Besides Nirbhaya Kadhi, we have also taken several other initiatives to end the practice of child marriage in Ganjam,” district collector Vijay Amruta Kulange said. He added that these include compulsory verification of the Aadhaar card of the bride by the anganwadi worker for every marriage in the village, verification of the long absence of a girl student from school as well as the announcement of a cash reward of Rs 5,000 for anyone who informs the officials concerned about any child marriage.
“The suspected age of the bride can be known after the verification of her date of birth through the Aadhar card by the anganwadi workers. Similarly, the fact of the absence of the adolescent girl students from school can also be known after inquiring about it from her parents. We have also educated the community leaders and priests about the law prohibiting child marriages,” Kulange said. Similarly, the task force committee on the prevention of child marriage was formed at the district, block and panchayat-level with the same objective. The district administration wants to make Ganjam free of child marriage in the next two years, while Odisha by 2030.
The officials said as many as 228 child marriage cases were reported and prevented in 2020.