Context:
Recently, Nayagarh, a district in Odisha, has adopted a unique initiative- Aliva to eradicate child marriage.
- As per Odisha’s child marriage prevention strategy, the State aims to eradicate child marriage by 2030.
Relevance:
GS II: Government policies and Interventions
Dimensions of the Aricle:
- About Aliva to eradicate child marriage
- Significance
About Aliva to eradicate child marriage:
- The programme was launched in January, 2022.
- Workers at anganwadi programmes were instructed to track down and identify every teenage girl in their area.
- Aanganwadi centres in the district include records called Aliva that contain information about adolescent girls, such as the date of their birth registration, their Aadhaar number, their family details, their skill training, etc.
- The local headmaster, the girl’s father, the supervisor, and the Child Marriage Prohibition Officer have all approved the girl’s age (CMPO).
- Currently, the district has 48,642 adolescent females’ information recorded in the Aliva registries.
- District administration and the police consult registers to confirm girls’ ages when they are tipped off about child weddings.
- The district has made the decision to keep the record for ten years, from 2020 to 2030.
Significance:
- The Aliva registers are by far the most comprehensive ones that keep tabs on girls’ lives for 10 years.
- The register has been useful for law enforcement agencies, as parents attempt to lie about the age of their girls to escape punishment.
- Though the register was conceptualised to prevent child marriages, it has been very useful for tracking the health of girls especially if they are anaemic.
-Source: The Hindu
