BHUBANESWAR: The state government on Tuesday launched a five-year scheme ‘Aame Padhiba Aama Bhasare’ along with a 100-day campaign to prevent child marriage and a pilot project to prevent teenage pregnancy and support teenage mothers.
Launching the initiatives, deputy chief minister Pravati Parida said women empowerment is the key to a developed Odisha and providing a safe, equal and respectful environment to women and children is the priority of the state government.
Under the five-year scheme, early childhood education will be provided to children in the age group of 3-6 years in their mother tongue in line with the National Education Policy, 2020. In the first phase, the scheme will be implemented in Munda, Kui, Saura, Kuvi, Gondi and Koya languages in Keonjhar, Kandhamal, Gajapati, Rayagada, Nabarangpur and Malkangiri districts.
As part of the scheme, anganwadi workers will be provided with language-specific training, educational materials and audio-visual content. Parida called for efforts to make the scheme well- known like the Subhadra Yojana. She said anganwadis will be made attractive for children.
For prevention of child marriage, the government has planned to strengthen girl child education, awareness and safety through active involvement of the community, youth leadership, ASHA, anganwadi workers and institutional platforms.
The deputy chief minister emphasised on making the drive for prevention of child marriage successful through awareness campaigns like cycle rallies, youth conferences, human chains, school, college-based early warning systems, etc.