An orientation workshop was conducted for traditional leaders of Ganjam district jointly by the district administration, Ganjam, Unicef and ActionAid to combat child marriage in the district.
As many as 60 leaders from 15 different caste group people including tribal communities joined in the workshop. District Social Welfare Officer Manorama Reddy, District Social Security Officer Subhranshu Maharana, ISRD Director Sudhir Sabat, CWC member Harihar Padhy and DCPU Councillor Sujit Behera joined and appealed the leaders not to allow organisation of any child marriage in their locality.
They also sought support from the leaders to take necessary steps at their castes and appealed for involvement of everyone to spread the massage to make Ganjam a child marriage free district.
Child marriage leads to infant mortality, maternal mortality, malnutrition and economic vulnerability.
To address the child marriage issues, the State Government, Ganjam district administration, Action Aid and Unicef jointly focused on different aspects like every children will be in the school and quality learning,
health, malnutrition, child protection mechanisms and skill development mechanisms and a district work plan.