KOLKATA: The state women and child development and social welfare department, and UNICEF, on Thursday launched several action plans to curb the high rate of child marriages reported in the state. The action plans have been launched after National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) indicated that, at 41.6%, Bengal, along with Bihar, have high child marriage rates.
State minister Shashi Panja discussed four key district action plans against child marriage with Unicef's support on Thursday's workshop, including the introduction of a menstrual hygiene tracker for adolescents, introduction of a financial literacy module, implementation of West Bengal Guidelines on Foster Care, 2021, and the Guidelines for the District Action Plans for Ending Child Marriage.
Panja said while the structures for equipping girls with awareness and incentives for staying in school and preventing early marriage and teen pregnancies are well established by the state, the need of the hour is to closely observe implementation of the plans in place. "With the help of our various stakeholders, our primary goal is to identify those obstacles which weaken the progress of teenage girls and to overcome them," she said.
