People have questioned the process of declaring villages child-marriage free
Rugudipali, a village in Odisha’s Subarnapur district, was first declared ‘child-marriage free’ in 2019. This was considered as one of the best practices to combat child marriage.
The state’s women and child development department issued an advisory to all district magistrates and collectors, to replicate the same in their respective districts. These officers are also the nodal officers for implementation of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act.
Many districts have taken this in letter and spirit. As a result, around 10,000 villages in the state have been declared as child-marriage free. The state government also awarded Rs 3,000 to each of these villages to encourage the move.
The state’s Ganjam district was the first to be free of child marriages. In the first phase on January 19, 2021, the district magistrate declared 1,032 villages and 140 wards of the urban local bodies as child-marriage free.
In the second phase on October 14, 2021, an additional 1,010 villages, 126 wards of the urban local bodies and 221 Gram Panchayats were added to the list. On January 3, 2022 the district magistrate declared the whole district child-marriage free. Appreciating the move, NITI Aayog, Centre’s public policy think-tank, awarded this initiative with the SKOCH award.
Many have applauded the district magistrate of Ganjam but some have raised concerns. What indicators have been set to declare a village as child-marriage free? How is it being ensured that no child marriages are taking place in these villages? Is it just a catchphrase or is there any administrative accountability integral to this process?
Such questions are natural, given the negative experience related to villages declared free of open defecation.
Odisha launched a state strategy action plan in 2019 to make the state child-marriage free by 2030. Unless villages, urban locations, Gram Panchyats and districts are child-marriage free, how can the state achive the status?
Unless there is a conviction in the process adopted, the state will never be able to realise the goal in the stipulated time.
Every district has to adopt the same process for declaring villages child-marriage free. None of them have been acknowledged child-marriage free overnight. The process is as follows:
As a part of this programme, many districts developed a database of adolescents and started keeping records of all marriages at the village level. Ganjam district alone recorded 48,386 marriages in the last two years, out of which 26 are child marriages.
Data of marriages taking place in each village in Subarnapur district was also submitted to the district magistrate through the block development officer on a monthly basis.
A thorough database of marriages taking place in the last two years has been prepared with the direct supervision of the district magistrate in Nabarangpur district as well.
There are many such bodies tracking each and every marriage in the villages to put a stop to the malpractice of child marriage. Tracking marriages is a great tool to ensure no child marriage takes place in any village declared child-marriage free.
Recently, the child marriage prohibition officer, with the help of child helpline and others, stopped a child marriage in a village in Nayagarh district. This was possible because of the strong monitoring mechanism set up in each village.
Apart from this, capacity-building of adolescents, engaging with different stakeholders for socio-behavioural changes, felicitation of the children and parents who have refused to marry off their children, capacity-building of duty bearers are constantly going on to build a preventive and enabling environment.
Over time, the state is witnessing an increase in reporting child marriages and responding to them accordingly, reflecting the responsiveness of the system and the duty bearers.
The attention the issue is getting from the state, if continued, can eradicate the malice in the entire state in the desired period. Drives to rid villages of child marriage created scope for people’s participation. This campaign also has been a stimulus for many to take the mission forward.
However, to make the campaign more effective, the state needs to review and restrategise a few aspects. It has been observed that the crusade has been successful, wherever the district magistrate attended to the matter personally.
There is a need to change this idiosyncratic approach to a structure-centric approach. This will be helpful in sustaining the program, as well as to increase its spread.
There have been fewer interventions in urban areas compared to rural. This is despite the fact that children in slums are more vulnerable to elopement and child marriage. There is no institutional mechanism prepared yet in urban areas like the child protection committees in rural regions.
This form should be prioritised and such committees should be made functional at the ward- and city-level, involving the urban local bodies.
The police still does not consider solemnisation of child marriage as significant crime. Hence registration of a FIR is still not a priority for such cases. The recently released National Crime Records Bureau data clearly substantiates this fact. As this is a cognisable offence, the police needs to be sensitive enough to respond.
The process of social change is dynamic and continuous. There have been many successful experiments in the past. With increased people’s participation and a responsive governance, this pursuit of making a state child-marriage free will also be successful.
Ghasiram Panda is the national manager of the Ending Child Marriage Programme of Action Aid India
Views expressed are the author’s own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth
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