Statewide campaign for child marriage prevention awareness till September.
Opponents of child marriage will get the strength of the campaign – Women and Child Development Minister Adv. Yashomati Thakur.
As many as 790 child marriages have been prevented in the state during the Corona period. Therefore, the Department of Women and Child Development, UNICEF and Akshara Center have come together and launched a statewide campaign from today till the end of September 2021 to curb the rising number of child marriages. The campaign was inaugurated by Women and Child Development Minister Adv. Yashomati Thakur.
The campaign will include campaigns to prevent child marriage, exchange of dissemination materials, stories of girls preventing child marriage through social media, counselling to parents, engaging social workers working in the field. Launching the campaign, Minister Adv. Thakur unveiled 4 information boards calling for the prevention of child marriage. Rajeshwari Chandrasekhar, Head, UNICEF Maharashtra, Nandita Shah, Joint Director, Akshara Center were present on the occasion.
“As a minister, I am very concerned about the rising issue of child marriage,” said Adv. Thakur, Minister for Women and Child Development. In this, girls are forcibly pushed into adulthood roles and forced to become mothers at an early age and take responsibility for the home. In; Their childhood and innocent dreams never end. The government is making various efforts to prevent child marriage, which also requires the strengthening of grassroots organizations, child protection committees in rural areas, and helplines such as Childline 1098. A committee has been constituted to suggest changes in the Prevention of Child Marriage Act, 2006 to make it more effective.
“I am delighted to be launching this campaign today,” she added. This will give strength to girls who oppose child marriage, Anganwadi Tai, Gramsevaks who prevent child marriage, teachers, officials of Rural Development Department, Child Protection Committees, District Child Protection Units, Child Welfare Committees etc.
Rajeshwari Chandrasekhar said that Sustainable Development Goal 5.3 aims to eradicate child marriage by 2030. Despite being the leading state in GDP, Maharashtra is among the top five states in the country in terms of child marriage. However, data from the last 20 years show a positive decline. The rate of child marriage in Maharashtra has come down from 47.7 per cent in 1998 to 21.9 per cent in 2019. Even so, one in five marriages in the state during the Corona period is child marriage, and child marriage has also increased in some districts. Collective efforts are needed to prevent child marriage, she added.
“Last year, we were shocked by the increase in incidents of domestic violence during the lockout,” said Mrs Nandita Shah. We made many efforts for this and launched a campaign against it. Now the rising rate of child marriage is a matter of concern. We are confident that the public awareness campaign we are launching in collaboration with the Department of Women and Child Welfare and UNICEF will get the active participation of citizens in preventing child marriage.
Sakshi Tanwar, a spokesperson for the campaign, said the campaign would also have a positive impact on the future by stopping child marriages by linking many strangers to the anti-child marriage movement.
The closure of schools due to the Covid-19 epidemic, the loss of contact with friends and support organizations, the rising rate of poverty have put many struggling girls in dire straits. Corona is reducing the responsibility of the family by marrying off girls due to parental death, poverty etc. Over the past year, 790 child marriages in the state have been stopped by the Women and Child Welfare Department, Childline, police and social organizations, despite lockout rules and travel restrictions. As many as 88 child marriages have been stopped in Solapur district, 62 in Aurangabad, 45 each in Osmanabad and Nanded, 42 in Yavatmal and 40 in Beed.
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