The Prime Minister's Excellence Award for year 2013-14 has been given to lado Abhiyan launched by Madhya Pradesh to discourage and prevent child marriage. The award was given away by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Commissioner of Woman Empowerment Kalpana Shrivastava in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Woman and Child Development Minister Maya Singh and Chief Secretary Anthony DeSa congratulated Kalpana Shrivastava and the entire team of the campaign for this achievement. lado Abhiyan was launched in 2013 to eradicate the malpractice of child marriage. The main objective of the campaign is apprising the people of the provisions of the Prevention of Child Marriage Act-2006 and making them aware of the ill-effects of marriage in a tender age on the mental and physical development of children. The campaign is run round the year.

Under the campaig, 52,000 child marriages were prevented through counseling before the event from April 2014 to February 2015. In all, 1511 child marriages were prevented on the spot and 41 FIRs registered with police. Under the campaign, one lakh children were admitted to schools and information about Prevention of Child Marriage Act was given in 22,000 schools.

The novel campaign was recognized at the national level. Senior officers of the Central Government witnesses changes effected by the campaign during spot inspections in several districts of the State. On observing effective results, the Central Government selected the campaign for Prime Minister's Excellence Award for year 2013-14.