It was a parent teacher meeting (PTM) of a different kind that was held in the tribal pockets across Odisha on Sunday. Instead of parents being briefed about academic progress shown by their wards, they were sensitized to prevent child marriages at their homes and localities.
With child marriages posing a huge societal problem in the tribal belt, the SC and ST Development Department had directed over 1,700 schools to discuss this social evil in their PTMs.
Tribal parents were told that girls younger than 15 are five times more likely to die in child births than women in their 20s.
