As the number of child weddings in Odisha continues to rise, especially in rural areas, the state government has decided to enlist the help of various authorities to put an end to the social anomaly. Law, School and Mass Education, Higher Education, Skill Development, and SC and ST Development are the departments. The Women and Child Welfare (WCD) department wrote to the secretaries of the departments, requesting their help in preventing such weddings, tracking vulnerable children, and rehabilitating them through appropriate programmes.
The SME department has been instructed to enroll disadvantaged adolescent girls in Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas and other residential institutions (both rescued from child marriage and orphaned). In the Class 8 curriculum, it has been suggested that a chapter on child marriage, its effects, and legal requirements be included. Similarly, the SC and ST development department was asked to guarantee that tribal girls continue to receive education and to engage with local tribal influencers and leaders in order to advocate for community-specific recommendations against child marriages.
The State Strategy Action Plan calls for the abolition of child marriage by 2030, and the department is working hard to meet that goal. 4,000 communities have been designated child marriage-free as of today, with 1,970 such weddings averted so far this year.
The WCD department requested that the Law department publish an advice instructing temples under its administrative supervision to post notice boards on their campuses that read, “We have also urged the Skill Development department to reduce the minimum age for vocational training from 18 years to 16 years so that the out of school children, especially the girls, may get vocational training and are not forced to child marriage by the family”, he said.
