PRASAR is dedicated to the development of the deprived people (backward and poor rural women, people with disabilities, child labour, victims of trafficking and violence) of Assam. The organization is working on the following issue of Child Marriage, Child Trafficking, Child Labour and Child Sexual Abuse. The organization participated and organized Child Marriage Free India Campaign in Ayodhya district of Uttar Pradesh covering over 5 Block and 50 Gram Panchayats under the project.
The Campaign Activities included:
1. June Action Month – PRASAR conducted the action month with the objective of Child Marriage Free Ayodhya and prevented 17 child marriages, 0 injunction orders and 4 FIRs got registered. The campaign was conducted in collaboration with DCPU, CWC, DWO, ICPS, Panchayat Secretary, Police, and child line departments and covered by newspaper with an outreach of 10,000 directly and 5000 through online.
2. 16 October 2023 – Child Marriage Free India Campaign Event – The campaign event was conducted in 8 locations of Wanaparthy town covering Wanaparthy Municpality and Rajapeta village in collaboration all line departments (DRDO, DWO, DMHO, DEO, DPO, Police, CWC, DCPU, Civil Judge, teachers, hostels, institutions, and community) with notifications issued by DRDO, SP, CWC, DCPU departments. The campaign was organized in Wanaparthy district, 7 municipalities and 1 villages and through radio station VJMS Awaaz FM 90.4 with an outreach of 2,28456 members.
Campaign highlights: Torch Fire Rally in villages, Signature Campaign Gram Panchayat Level to District Level covering all district offices, Candle Light Rallies in some colleges and hostels. Poster release and distribution, Book Release of “When Children have Children.”
The Way Forward: PICKET Strategy to End Child Marriage
Addressing the issue of child marriage, requires a comprehensive and coordinated approach of different government departments, institutions, statutory bodies, and civil society organisations.
Tipping Point to end child marriage
WHEN CHILDREN HAVE CHILDREN – TIPPING POINT TO END CHILD MARRIAGE Book authored by Mr Bhuwan Ribhu is an action plan to eliminate child marriage in India by 2030. It looks at the existing data on child marriage and lists 257 districts in India where the issue of child marriage is worst, which means where the occurrence of this evil practice is highest as compared to national numbers.
Tipping Point is the threshold required in an ecosystem needed to tilt the scale of the problem towards a point of no-return. The Tipping Point of Child Marriage is the critical point after which the society does not accept child marriage.
Tipping Point Methodology
The aim of reduction of 60 percent of child marriage is assumed to bring down the incidence of child marriage to 5.5 percent in the next nine years from 2021, from the last available estimates i.e., NFHS-5, till 2030. An additional assumption is that such a focused and elaborate intervention against child marriage would have a ripple effect.
In order to reach the Tipping Point, the Author proposes strategy at national and district level.
- National Level strategy where Governments, Institutions, statutory bodies, etc. work towards prevention, protection, increased investment, improved prosecution, convergence and use of technology for monitoring
- District Level strategy is similar to national level strategy but includes district administration, Panchayats, civil society, NGOs, other functionaries, parents and children who work collectively to prevent, report, and take action against child marriage
