State to strengthen child marriage prevention with gender-inclusive drive

Kolkata: The Bengal government will emphasise educating both boys and girls through awareness activities to further curb child marriage in the state.

“It’s not the girls alone, boys also have to be educated about the ill effects of early marriage and they should be demotivated from marrying before their legal age of marriage too,” said Shashi Panja, minister of Women and Child Development and Social Welfare, at a state-level consultation on Adolescent Empowerment.

The programme was attended by government officials from various departments working together in the districts to end child marriage.

Panja encouraged officials to share their experiences in combating child marriage since the launch of the District Action Plan three years ago, along with the Child Marriage Reporting and Tracking Mechanism. The state reported more than 41 per cent of the girls getting married under age in National Family Health Survey-5 (NFHS) released

in 2020-21.

Additional District Magistrates and other officials attending the programme said that many boys are getting married below 21

years of age. Panja advocated for building awareness in society is the key to stopping this. Inclusion of men and boys more in the meetings on child marriage along with girls and women for strengthening awareness. She also released ‘Guidelines for Implementation of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006 in West Bengal’. State government, in collaboration with UNICEF, prepared a District Action Plan in 2022 to counter child marriage.

Panja, Sanghamitra Ghosh, principal secretary, Monjur Hossain, Chief of UNICEF in Bengal and other officials listened to the successes and challenges faced by the district officials during the programme, UNICEF said in a press release.

In NFHS-5, maximum child marriages were reported to have been taking place in East Midnapore (57 per cent) followed by East Burdwan (50 per cent) and Jalpaiguri being the lowest at 18 per cent.