Ganjam Collector Vijaya Amruta Kulange has declared the district as completely child marriage-free.
After duly verified by the respective Block Development Officers, Tehsildars, Executive Officers, NACs and Child Marriage Prohibition Officers of the district which have been recommended by the respective GPs, Wards, and village-level Task Force committees, the administration has declared the district as child marriage free.
The order said that the district comprises of 3,309 child marriage free villages; 280 child marriage free wards under ULBs and 503 child marriage free gram panchayats.
Meanwhile, Ganjam Collector Kulange expressed his gratitude to all the stakeholders including officials those who worked hard and contributed to making the district completely child marriage free district.
It may be mentioned that Kulange took personal interest and initiatives for successful implementation of “Nirbhaya Kadhee” scheme of the State Government in Ganjam district to prevent child marriage and took several initiatives in this direction under the direct supervision of Sarpanches, Anganwadi workers and ASHAs at grass root level for successful implementation of the scheme.
Sources also said that, during last two years, the district administration conducted as many as 14,422 meetings to examine threadbare the progress of “Nirbhaya Kadhee” scheme in the district. Soon after the scheme was implemented in the district, 45 cases of child marriage in 2019, followed by 228 in 2020 and 201 cases in 2021 were successfully prevented, sources claimed.
The district administration would pay Rs 50,000 to persons,who give first hand information on child marriage, said Kulange.