Just Rights for Children & ICWO Partners with NITI Aayog to Make Districts Child Marriage Free

NITI Aayog and the Association for Voluntary Action (AVA) are working together to protect and educate vulnerable children in India. Their goal is to declare 15,000 villages in 104 blocks as 'Child Marriage Free' within a year. The Indian Community Welfare Organisation (ICWO) supports this effort and aims to make the Salem and Chennai Districts free from child exploitation, including child labor, trafficking, marriage, and abuse. Both ICWO and AVA are part of Just Rights for Children, a network of over 250 NGOs focused on child protection across 416 districts. 

A Statement of Intent (SoI) has been signed to target Aspirational Blocks in 73 districts and create Bal Surakshit Grams, a model to build communities free from child marriage and exploitation. This initiative supports the Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP), launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2018. 

A. J. Hariharan from ICWO emphasizes their ongoing efforts to eliminate child marriage in accordance with the government's 'Bal Vivah Mukt Bharat' initiative. They are committed to collaborating with AVA to strengthen child protection mechanisms and ensure all children have the opportunity to learn and thrive. 

The two-year SoI will implement a strategy to empower young girls and improve education in underserved regions. There will be movement and marriage registers at the Panchayat level in the targeted villages to monitor and prevent child marriage and trafficking. Vulnerable and out-of-school children will receive access to education and skill development opportunities, while at-risk families will be connected to government welfare schemes. 

Dhananjay Tingal from AVA expressed pride in making progress toward empowering vulnerable groups, aiming to end child marriage by 2025. He stressed that true protection of children requires a collective effort from government bodies, civil society organizations, and communities at all levels. NITI Aayog will work with state governments and other stakeholders to identify families, collaborate with district administrations, and develop a database to monitor children's welfare.