Students take pledge against child marriage

‘Bal Vivah Mukt Bharat’—a campaign against child marriage—was launched today by the Central Government in Delhi. To curb incidents of child marriage in the country and to make the masses aware of the ill effects of this tradition, a pledge was taken by students across government schools in the district today.

The 2-3 minute pledge aimed at making the students aware of the social evil of child marriages in the country.

Students of classes VIII-XII were seen taking the pledge at government schools today. Since the strength of students in many schools is high, different batches were assigned different timings to take the pledge.

Reportedly a number of classes were left for the administering of the pledge, and these students shall take the pledge tomorrow.

District Education Officer (Secondary) Dimple Madan said a letter, containing the pledge, was forwarded to all the schools. “We received reports that the exercise was duly conducted in the schools. The aim was to make students aware of this social evil, still prevailing in many parts of the country,” added the DEO.

Charanjit Kaur, Principal, Government Senior Secondary School, Cemetery Road, said the students of classes IX and X took the pledge in the first batch, while those in XI and XII took it in the second.

On being asked if the aim of administering the pledge was shared with the students, the principal said the teachers had informed the students about the significance of the project.

Campaign against

child marriage

After the success of ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao,’ a flagship scheme launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 22, 2015, that has been instrumental in bringing a positive shift in the behaviour and attitude of society towards valuing the girl child, the ‘Bal Vivah Mukt Bharat’ campaign will focus on making the country child marriage-free.

Officials said this was imperative to promote education, skilling, enterprise, and entrepreneurship among girls and women and would also help realise the vision of ‘Viksit Bharat’ by 2047. Achieving this vision would not be possible unless women and girls had full, equal, and meaningful participation in all spheres of life.

UNFPA data on issue

As per figures quoted by the United Nations Population Fund, eight states in India have a higher prevalence of child marriage than the national average. Among them, West Bengal, Bihar, and Tripura top the list with more than 40 per cent of women aged 20-24 married before 18 years. The other five states include Jharkhand, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Telangana.