Centre Reveals 259 Districts with Elevated Child Marriage Rates
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New Delhi, Dec 20 (NationPress) Approximately 259 districts across the nation, nearly one-third of the total 800 districts, show a rate of child marriage exceeding the national average, as disclosed in Parliament on Friday.
During a Lok Sabha session, Women and Child Development Minister Annapurna Devi stated that according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), 1,002 cases were documented in 2022 under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (PCMA), 2006.
She mentioned that the recorded cases under the PCMA were 501, 525, 785, and 1,050 in the years 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021, respectively.
The Minister also highlighted the launch of the 'Bal Vivah Mukt Bharat/Child Marriage Free Bharat' portal, an online initiative aimed at supporting the campaign's objectives by raising awareness, preventing child marriages, and ensuring effective reporting of such incidents.
This portal will serve as a centralized resource providing information about Child Marriage Prohibition Officers (CMPOs) at the central level, details of awareness programs, and a means to report child marriage cases, she explained.
Since the establishment of the PCMA Act in 2006, the occurrence of child marriage has been halved, dropping from approximately 47 percent as indicated by the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3) in 2005-06 to about 23.3 percent during 2019-21 as per NFHS-5.
The Minister observed that several states have a higher occurrence of child marriage compared to the national average.
According to NFHS-5 data, there are roughly 259 districts in India where the child marriage rate is above the national average.
Emphasizing government measures against child marriages, the Minister reported that the 'Bal Vivah Mukt Bharat' portal, which was launched on November 27 this year, coincided with a national training session for all Child Marriage Prohibition Officers (CMPOs), both in-person and virtually, to enhance their effectiveness in this campaign.
The 'Bal Vivah Mukt Bharat' initiative is vital for promoting education, skills, enterprise, and entrepreneurship among girls and women, contributing to the vision of a 'Viksit Bharat', she concluded.
