38 high-risk districts in Rajasthan selected for drive against child marriage

A civil society network has selected 38 high-risk districts in Rajasthan to carry out an intensive drive to completely eradicate the practice of child marriage within the next year through community efforts and legal interventions.

This initiative will increase support for the State government’s actions and leverage the resources of village panchayats to spread awareness in remote areas.

Just Rights for Children (JRC), working with 17 partner organizations in the state, claims to have prevented 22,480 child marriages in Rajasthan last year.

High prevalence areas

The villages in the 38 districts selected for the campaign were determined as “high prevalence areas” in terms of child marriages, according to the National Family Health Survey-5 (NFHS-5) conducted between 2019-2021.

According to NFHS-5, the prevalence of child marriage in Rajasthan is 25.4%, slightly above the national average of 23.3%. But various regions in the state show wide disparities. While the prevalence of child marriage in Chittorgarh and Bhilwara districts is over 40%, nine districts (Jhalawar, Tonk, Sawai Madhopur, Bundi, Bharatpur, Karauli, Bikaner, Alwar and Pratapgarh) have a child marriage prevalence of over 30%. There are nine more districts where the prevalence of child marriage is between 23% and 29.9%.

community support

Community groups, faith leaders, village panchayats and citizens will play an important role in this initiative, JRC founder Bhuwan Ribhu said here on Saturday. “Child marriage is a crime against children. We will make every possible effort to completely eliminate child marriage through collective work,” Mr. Ribhu said.

The Union Ministry of Women and Child Development also launched a 100-day nationwide drive on Friday to help end child marriage in the country by 2030. India has committed to the global target of eliminating this practice by this date, in line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

Mr Ribhu said the JRC was using the “protection, prevention and prosecution” model to stop child marriages across the country. The network has led to massive change through legal interventions and awareness of child marriage laws in communities and schools, as well as among religious leaders and marriage service providers.

The state government has also asked all field officers and officials of the Ministries of Medicine and Health, Panchayati Raj and Rural Development, as well as the Education and Higher Education Departments to actively participate in the Centre’s campaign against child marriage and make the campaign effective.