BHUBANESWAR: As chances of child marriage amidst COVID-19 pandemic and on Akshya Tritiya - an occasion when mass marriages take place - lurk high, the State government has asked district level task forces to stay vigilant to protect vulnerable girls from unlawful marriages.
The Department of Women and Child Development and Mission Shakti has sought intervention of Panchayati Raj and Law departments in framing guidelines and issuing appropriate instructions prohibiting religious institutions like temples and marriage mandaps from solemnisation of such weddings.
The religious heads and temple priests will be sensitised to verify birth certificates while solemnising marriages. Submission of birth certificate or school leaving certificate will be made mandatory to stop child marriage.
This was discussed at the State-level PCMA (Prohibition of Child Marriage Act) Committee meeting chaired by Principal Secretary (Woman & Child Development) Anu Garg here on Friday.
It was decided that religious heads and temple authorities will be requested to put up information board with the message that "the temple authorities do not support child marriage" to discourage people against this social aberration.
"The State Strategy Action Plan envisages ending child marriage by 2030 and the department is making consistent efforts to achieve the target. As on March 31, 2021, 3,007 villages have been declared as child marriage free," Garg said.
The State level committee appreciated the innovative programmes taken up by the district administration of Koraput, Ganjam, Nayagarh and Kandhamal. As schools remain closed and girls are more likely to drop out of education, the meeting decided that as a post intervention effort of linking the rescued adolescents girls either with schools or appropriate skill training opportunities and making them economically independent to reduce their vulnerability to child marriage.
Admitting that job losses and increased economic insecurity during COVID-19 pandemic are forcing families to marry their daughters to ease financial burdens, sources in the department said district, blocks and panchayat level task forces are being regularly sensitised to take up district specific programmes and campaigns with the support of partner agencies to create awareness among people on the emotional, physical and mental hazards of child marriage.