With a view to prevent child marriage further in the state, West Bengal government will lay emphasis on building awareness among girls with boys about the harmful effects of this social practice.
“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,” Dr Shashi Panja, Minister of Women and Child Development and Social Welfare, said at a State Level Consultation on Adolescent Empowerment attended by government officials from various departments working together in the districts to end child marriage.
She urged the officials gathered to share their experiences in fighting the menace since the launch of the District Action Plan three years ago and later Child Marriage Reporting and Tracking Mechanism. The state reported more than 41 per cent of the girls getting married underage 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. “Building awareness in society is the key to stopping this. Also include men and boys more in the meetings on child marriage with girls and women,” Dr Panja said, releasing ‘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. Dr Panja, Sanghamitra Ghosh, Principal Secretary, Dr Monjur Hossain, Chief of UNICEF in West Bengal and other officials listened to the successes and challenges faced by the district officials, UNICEF said in a press release.
Meanwhile, she asked the officials from the departments of Health and Family Welfare, School Education, Panchayat and Rural Development, Technical Education, Training and Skill Development to deal with the problem more empathetically as present day adolescents are exposed to many lures and distractions, including online and social media platforms on mobile phones. The minister also emphasised that Kanyashree Prakalpa has now been empowering adolescent girls on online safety besides motivating them to remain in school and not get married.
In NFHS-5, maximum child marriages were reported to have been taking place in Purba Medinipur (57 per cent) followed by Purba Bardhaman (50 per cent) and Jalpaiguri being the lowest at 18 per cent.
State government, with the help of UNICEF, launched the Child Marriage Reporting and Tracking Mechanism in 2023 to collect data from the districts and portray the real-time situation, Sanghamitra Ghosh, Principal Secretary of the department said and urged the officials to use it regularly.
Describing this consultation as “A renewed call to action”, Dr Monjur Hossain, Chief of UNICEF in West Bengal said that the holistic development of adolescents requires concerted, coordinated and multi-sectoral actions by all stakeholders concerned. “The involvement of key community influencers, panchayat members, SHGs, religious leaders, teachers, students, youths and adolescents is necessary to challenge harmful norms and support girls’ and boys’ empowerment,” he said.
The districts shared their successful strategies while also speaking in detail about various challenges to the minister, government officials and UNICEF specialists. They prepared action plans for various strategies including community and school awareness campaigns, data tracking, exposure to role models and mobile app based reporting, effective helpline use to prevent child marriage and elopement-specific interventions.