End child marriage: State, UNICEF launch tools to boost community participation

MP  |  12 Mar 2023  | KOLKATA: In a bid to curb child marriage, gender inequality and gender-based violence, the state government and UNICEF have unveiled tools—including adolescent girls’ tracker—to boost their joint initiative focusing on community participation. 

West Bengal State Rural Livelihood Mission (WBSRLM), under the aegis of the ‘Anandadhara’ project, has engaged Self-Help Groups (SHG) since September last year to form child-friendly sanghas’ (clusters) to end child marriage and other deprivations meted out on the children in the state. Under the umbrella of Anandhadhara’, the key rural livelihood mission, Bengal is one of the top states in the country with more than 10.45 lakh SHGs. 

The tools, including adolescent girls’ tracker, Self-Help Groups discussion points and posters to promote empowerment and gauge the progress of initiative focusing on curbing child marriage, gender inequality and gender-base violence, have been developed by the WBSRLM in collaboration with UNICEF. These tools will be distributed among the 110 functional child-friendly ‘sanghas’ in the state in the next two weeks. Moreover, the state government is planning to extend it to 56 more ‘sanghas’ in the next financial year 2023-24. 

“Regular discussions at all levels on a specified social issue for awareness, self-monitoring by SHGs and tracking of status of the girl children in their locality are being planned to be implemented with the help of charts, visuals and other audio-visual methods as part of these tools,” Vibhu Goel, CEO of WBSRLM said. “We are also focusing on instilling a mechanism of self-belief among the women so that child marriage and other social malpractices are rooted out,” Goel added. 

Laying stress on monitoring the process, he said: “If the process is not monitored, then where and what steps should be taken to achieve success would remain untraced.” The National Family Health Survey Report-V shows that nearly 48 per cent of rural girls are married off underage in the state. 

“Once we implement the tools at the community level, these trackers and documents will have a great change in society to prevent these social evils. 

The initiative will help to create a protective environment for the children, adolescent girls and women and address practices like child marriage and gender-based violence in the society,”UNICEF chief in Bengal, Mohammad Mohiuddin, said at the programme. He said that the state government has been requested to involve the SHGs in the initiative since the members enjoy the advantage of knowing and being known and recognised in the community and they can take preventive measures as well as facilitate response for the avoidance of these practices.

https://www.millenniumpost.in/bengal/end-child-marriage-state-unicef-launch-tools-to-boost-community-participation-511406