Key Highlights
- Ganjam district announced a child‑marriage‑free status in January 2022 after averting 20 unions.
- Dhenkanal’s Kalpana Avijan identified 1,13,515 girls and prevented 343 child marriages.
- Keonjhar’s Swarna Kalika cut the incidence of child marriage by half through community outreach and the ADVIKA app.
- Deogarh’s Veerangana Yojana equipped 500 girls with martial‑arts skills and created a network of 50 master trainers.
Detailed Insights
The national Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) programme, launched on 22 January 2015, seeks to correct India’s skewed child‑sex ratio and promote gender parity. Aligning with this mandate, the Odisha government rolled out four district‑specific interventions that blend legal enforcement, awareness‑raising, and skill development.
In Ganjam, the twin campaigns “Nirbhaya Kadhi” and “Mo Gelha Jiya” targeted 183,933 adolescents across 3,309 villages. Besides a ₹5,000 incentive for reporting child‑marriage cases, the district mobilised 450,000 school‑going children to pledge opposition to under‑age unions, culminating in an official child‑marriage‑free declaration.
Dhenkanal’s “Kalpana Avijan” focused on systematic tracking of girls aged 10‑19. By enrolling 1,13,515 beneficiaries, the scheme fostered village‑level vigilance that thwarted 343 child marriages and earned commendations during International Girl Child Week 2024.
Keonjhar’s “Swarna Kalika” pursued a pure awareness model. Leveraging the ADVIKA mobile platform, the initiative engaged roughly 2,000 community stakeholders, achieving a 50 % decline in child‑marriage occurrences by 2024.
Finally, Deogarh’s “Veerangana Yojana” introduced a 30‑day martial‑arts boot‑camp for 500 adolescents, sensitised 300 educators on legal rights, and cultivated 50 master trainers who subsequently reached 6,000 girls across 300 schools—a programme later honoured with the SKOCH Award.