NAYAGARH: ALIVA registers - an unique initiative launched by Nayagarh administration in January this year to keep a track of each and every adolescent girl - has helped bring down the number of child marriages in the district.
These are 100-page registers that contain all details including age, address, family details, education status, Aadhaar card number, contact number of 48,642 adolescent girls in the district. The registers are being maintained by all the 1,584 anganwadis in Nayagarh which has been in the limelight in the past for female foeticide and girl child marriages.
Anganwadi workers have got the data of each of the girls validated through their father, school headmaster, lady supervisor of anganwadi centre concerned and local child marriage prevention officer. And lady supervisors are maintaining these registers to keep an eye on the girls, particularly those out of schools and at high risk of early marriage. The initiative is being jointly implemented by the district administration and ActionAid.
Nayagarh (31.3 pc) is one among the eight districts in the State where the child marriage rate is above the national average (26.8 pc). ALIVA registers are the first means of verification to identify the real age of an adolescent girl. In fact, the registers work as a tracking mechanism, said Collector Puma Tudu, who is also the nodal officer of Prohibition of Child Marriage.
From February to August this year, 61 minor marriages have been prevented in Nayagarh district and of them, 48 were stopped by checking the ALIVA registers. So far, Nayagarh has declared 764 villages as child marriage free, out of a total of 1,499 villages in the district.
When anganwadi workers visit homes, they refer to the register and seek to know about the presence of the girl in her family. In case they do not meet the girl or parents/guardians are unable to explain her whereabouts, the anganwadi workers bring it to the notice of the district Collector.
“In the past, cases had come to our notice where parents have forged Aadhaar cards to increase the age of the girls for getting them married. So during identification of girls in the age group of 10 to 19, anganwadi workers recorded their birth dates which is mentioned in school registers. The data was validated in four stages and within two months from launch of the programme, we identified every adolescent girl in the district. Today, even police refer to ALIVA registers when cases of child marriages come to them,” said Programme coordinator of ALIVA, Ipsita Agarwal.
Towards the end of the register, information about child marriage, educational progress, skill training status and health issues of the girls are recorded. Agarwal said that the district will maintain these registers for a period of 10 years, 2020 to 2030. Earlier, the State government had announced to make Odisha child marriage free by 2030 and as a part of its action plan, administrations are taking up various measures in collaboration with NGOs and community level organisations in districts where the child marriage rate is above the national average.