Berhampur: Gajapati district became the second one after Ganjam which was declared child marriage free after it met all criteria laid down by the government.
Announcing it, Collector Lingaraj Panda said no child marriage solemnised in the last two years in the district.
Village-level child protection committees meet regularly, marriage records maintained in every village and tracking girls who are absent in schools, officials said.
Panda said all 1,710 villages in 149 panchayat areas in seven blocks of the district fulfilled the criteria. The urban areas under Paralakhemundi Municipality and Kashinagar Notified Area Council also met the conditions.
Large-scale awareness drives with the help of Anganwadi and ASHA workers were undertaken over the last four years to meet the criteria, he said.
The community leaders were also involved in the efforts, he said.
During the period, the district administration prevented 103 child marriage attempts, officials said.
A team of the UNFPA-UNICEF Global Programme to End Child Marriage also visited the district in November to inspect the initiatives undertaken by the district administration, Panda said.
Over 12,000 villages in the state have been declared free from child marriage after they fulfilled the criteria, officials said.
The government has also laid down guidelines to be followed after a village is declared ‘child marriage free’.
According to the guidelines, the village-level committees should meet regularly and take stock of all awareness activities. They should monitor families identified as vulnerable, and sensitise religious heads.
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