Over 8,100 child marriage cases registered in Odisha since 2019: Govt data
The highest number of 1,347 child marriage cases were reported from Nabarangpur district followed by Ganjam district with 966
Bhubaneswar: A total of 8,159 child marriage cases have been registered in Odisha since 2019, the state government said on Saturday.
Replying to Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MLA Badri Narayan Patra’s question in the state Assembly, deputy chief minister Pravati Parida said that the highest number of 1,347 child marriage cases were reported from Nabarangpur district followed by Ganjam district with 966. Koraput district is placed third with 636 child marriages since 2019.
Last month, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) identified over 11,000 children as vulnerable to child marriages in Odisha.
NCPCR, which conducted a nation-wide survey of such students along with the state governments, found 11,053 such children by mapping 26,415 schools in 19,683 villages/blocks.
Odisha was one of the states that reported a ‘very high’ incidence of child marriages during the Covid-19 pandemic. According to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-5, there is a drop in underage marriages of girls in Odisha, from 21.3% during 2015-16 to 20.5% now.
There has been a slight decrease in girl child marriages in Odisha, from 21.3% in the National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-4 to 20.5% in NFHS-5. But marriages involving boys below the legal age of 21 have increased to 13.3% in NFHS-5, compared to 11% in NFHS-4. In rural Odisha, this percentage is higher at 14.8% compared to 7.8% in urban areas
The minister said that in order to bring down child marriages in the state, child development project officers, panchayat executive officers, wardens/matrons of residential Hostels have been notified as child marriage prohibition officers. All principals of the school and mass education department/ higher education department of the State have been notified as Child Marriage Information Officers.
