Regional Conference on Child Marriage

T he National Human Rights Commission organised a regional conference on Child Marriage at Bhubaneswar, Odisha from the 4th-5th January, 2018. It collaborated with the Government of Odisha, Sane and Enthusiastic Volunteers Association of Calcutta, SAIEVAC and India Alliance for Child Rights, IACR for the event. The objective of the conference was to raise awareness about the existing legislations prohibiting child marriage and understanding impediments in the effective implementation thereof to suggest the course correction.
Mr. S.C. Sinha, Member, NHRC chaired the conference. Besides the senior officers of the NHRC, the participants included senior police and administrative officers from the States of Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh, Members of the State Commission for women, State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, Legal experts and representatives of about 35 NGOs, Civil Services and Human Rights Organizations and academic institutions. The discussions were divided into four segments of child marriage, reality check, policy frame work, factors influencing child marriage and preventive measures, human trafficking and child marriages and road ahead. Several important suggestions emerged, some of which are as follows:
1. States should design strategic plans to address the menace of child marriage and ensure that Gram Panchayats run anti child marriage campaigns as part of their various development initiatives;
2. Village Level Child Protection Committee should be activated to track and report child marriages and child trafficking apart from engaging with community and religious leaders to build awareness about the harms of child marriage.
3. Linking of marriage registration with AADHAR should be made compulsory;
4. Make child marriage a criminal offence under protection of Child Marriage Act and depute child marriage prohibition officers at Taluk, district and State level;
5. Introduce a child marriage dissolution law with provisions for speedy adjudication of cases concerning children along with the rehabilitation of those rescued;
6. Include child related laws in school curriculum for awareness; also involve corporate sector under corporate social responsibilities for building awareness on the ills of child marriage;
7. Develop mobile App to connect with police control room.