Bhubaneswar: The Deogarh administration has declared all religious institutions in the district as ‘child marriage-free’ zones. The move is part of a district-wide campaign aimed at eradicating the practice of child marriage.A child marriage prohibition task force was constituted at every panchayat level to strengthen monitoring and enforcement. Anganwadi workers were mandated to register all marriages in official registers issued by the district administration. To encourage public vigilance, the administration also offers a cash incentive of Rs 3,000 to informers who report instances of child marriage.Officials said the prevalence of child marriage in Deogarh declined from 23% in the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) to 19% in NFHS-5, following the implementation of a district-specific action plan.In the first phase, 370 villages were declared child marriage-free. In the second phase, district collector Kabindra Kumar Sahoo and the zilla parishad president approved declaration of 364 more villages and 11 municipal wards as child marriage-free. These included 140 villages in Barkot block, 116 in Reamal and 108 in Tileibani.Deogarh is likely to become the third district after Ganjam and Gajapati to be declared child-marriage free.
