JEYPORE: Anganwadi workers will now be responsible for preventing child marriages in the district.
Sources said, Koraput has been recording the second-highest cases of child marriage in Odisha and this has prompted both the centre and the state government to take action to curb the social evil.
Gauging the gravity of the issue, the district administration has asked anganwadi workers to prevent child marriages with the help of local sector supervisors and CDPOs of projects concerned.
Koraput Collector Madhusudan Mishra said anganwadi workers will be required to inform higher authorities about cases of child marriage and any lapses on their part would be dealt with stringently.
He said since CDPOs have been given charge of child marriage prevention officer in the state, they, along with sector supervisors, would be held equally responsible for failing to curb the practice.
Recently, the district administration had formed a task force comprising officials of the Social Welfare department, NGOs and police to curb the menace.