Bhubaneswar: To curb child marriage, Odisha police have drawn up a strategy to groom adolescent students as crusaders against the social evil and encourage them to act as whistleblowers within their communities.Ahead of the International Day of the Girl Child on Oct 11, whose theme this year is “End child marriage and invest in girls’ rights”, all police stations across the state have been directed to conduct a three-day awareness drive from Oct 8. The programme will target students in the 14-18 years age group in schools, hostels and residential educational institutions under their jurisdictions.The outreach campaign will be carried out under the aegis of Juventica, a child safety initiative launched by the Odisha police in May.A circular issued by the Crime Against Women and Children Wing (CAW&CW) to all SPs and DCPs on Wednesday stated that police should engage with adolescents to develop them as potential leaders who can play an active role in preventing child marriages and addressing other child protection concerns in their families and neighbourhoods by reporting such incidents.As part of the initiative, inspectors-in-charge of police stations, local child welfare police officers, women police personnel and child marriage prohibition officers will jointly visit higher secondary schools, including residential institutions, to conduct awareness sessions.“The sessions will focus on the harmful effects of child marriage, including its impact on children’s physical and mental well-being, health risks associated with early and forced marriages, socio-economic consequences and the legal penalties prescribed under the law,” a senior officer of CAW&CW said.According to the 2011 census, 28.8% of girls in Odisha were married before the legal age of 18 years. The prevalence declined to 21.3% in the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4), conducted in 2015-16; 20.5% in NFHS-5 (2019-21) and 18.6% in NFHS-6 (2023-24). However, the CAW&CW’s circular noted that the figure should be considered high in absolute terms.The latest initiative comes on the heels of Odisha police directing Ama Police Samitis, the community policing committees functioning at the police station level, to identify children vulnerable to child marriage in five western Odisha districts — Sambalpur, Bargarh, Balangir, Jharsuguda and Subarnapur, which have reported a high incidence of underage marriages among girls.
