Ganjam District News Highlights:
• Ganjam in Odisha has declared itself the first child marriage-free district in the state.
• Ganjam established a programme called Nirbhaya Kadhi (Fearless bud).
• The government has also made the production of an Aadhaar card a requirement for any marriages.
The Nirbhaya Kadhi initiative is working effectively.
Ganjam in Odisha has declared itself the first child marriage-free district in the state. In the two years of 2020 and 2021, the district administration was able to prevent 450 child weddings and video-record 48,383 marriages.
“Child marriage stifles women’s growth.” In 2019, we decided to go on a mission to prevent child marriages and raise public awareness about the issue.” Ganjam District Magistrate ,Vijay Amruta Kulange said.
“After inspection, the Ganjam administration designated it a child marriage free district,” Mr. Kulange stated. Sarpanchs and members of the task force committee had provided recommendations that no child marriage had occurred in their regions.”
What does the data speaks?
According to the collector, the district has 3,309 child marriage-free villages, 280 child marriage-free wards under Urban Local Bodies (ULBs), and 503 child marriage-free Gram Panchayats.
He claimed that his team put in a lot of effort to make the Nirbhaya Kadhi Program a success.
The Ganjam administration, with the support of UNICEF and ActionAid India, established the Nirbhaya Kadhi programme in 2019 to prevent child marriages. Panchayat and ward-level task forces were formed as part of the campaign to raise public awareness about the dangers of underage marriage.
Ganjam established a programme called Nirbhaya Kadhi (Fearless bud).
“It wasn’t an easy task… We started the programme in order to prevent adolescent girls from dropping out of school and to provide them with counselling. If any girl aged 12 to 18 was missing from school for five days, all educational institute heads were ordered to notify the administration.
Mr. Kulange remarked, “We followed up with the teachers and other grassroots level workers.” In the last two years, over a lakh teenagers have received counselling.
Aadhaar Card major requirement for marriage:
The government has also made the production of an Aadhaar card a requirement for any marriages.
“We had advertised a 5,000 reward for anyone telling us about any child marriage,” Mr. Kulange continued. This has now been raised to $50,000.”
