Child marriage still rampant in Odisha's Malkangiri
MALKANGIRI: Child marriage continues to be a widely prevalent practice in the tribal-dominated district of Malkangiri despite state government’s efforts to arrest the social evil through various interventions.
It tops the State in registering the highest number of child marriages. As per the report of the Women and Child Development department, Malkangiri has registered 39.3 per cent child marriages followed by Nabarangpur 37.9 per cent, Mayurbhanj 35 per cent, Koraput 34.7 per cent, Rayagada 34.4 per cent, Nayagarh 31.3 per cent, Ganjam 29.8 per cent and Keonjhar 28.1 per cent in 2018-19.
Within Malkangiri, the number of child marriages has increased considerably in Kalimela, Malkangiri and Mathili areas.
District Child Protection Officer(DCPO) Narayan Das said between 2018 and 2019, as many as 143 child marriages across the district were stopped by the Child Welfare Committee.
Of this, 52 per cent of marriages were reported from Scheduled Caste (SC) community, 40 per cent by Scheduled Tribe (ST) and eight pc from general caste. Most of the girls were under the age of 17 and boys between 18 and 20 years of age.
Parents of all the 143 girls were asked to sign bonds that would not marry them off till they attain 18 years of age, the DCPO said.
Das added that the district administration has prepared a blueprint to tackle child marriages, which is a traditional practice among tribals and SC community.
A task force has been formed under the chairmanship of Collector Manish Agarwal to launch an awareness campaign on prevention of child marriages in the communities, discourage people from early marriage of their children and counsel girls and boys on the importance of education and sports.
“We are also contemplating to files cases against those violation of Prevention of Child Marriage Act, 2006,” he informed.