Adolescent and Child Right Network Assam (ACRNA) with the collaboration of Kokrajhar district administration organized a multi stakeholder consultation on child marriage at CIT Conference Hall in Kokrajhar of Assam on Friday.
Focusing child marriage as one of the biggest issues confronting children, ACRNA stated that it has taken up the issue in partnership with UNICEF, Assam state office.
ACRNA is a network of organizations working on the issues of adolescents and child rights in Assam.
Child marriage cases registered at CHILDLINE, Kokrajhar in 2016 are 36 cases; in 2017 as many as 75 cases were reported while in 2018 it rose to 102, totaling 213 cases registered during last three years.
The programme started with lighting of the lamp by the invited guests.
Those present were Kokrajhar Deputy Commissioner Niranjan Boruah, ACS as a chief guest Manna Biswas, Child Protection Specialist-UNICEF; Prakash Medhi, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Fr Lukose; Dr Saranjeeb Kakoty, coordinator-ACRNA, Digambar Narzary, chairperson-NEDAN, Malaya Deka, chairperson of CWC, Kokrajhar; Dr Anuva Das, chief medical officer and other stakeholders DCPU, JJB, NSS, NYKS, DSWO, CHILDLINE, students’ bodies and media.
Addressing the gathering, Deputy Commissioner of Kokrajhar Niranjan Baruah said, “Child marriage is a global issue. But it should be addressed in different areas, looking into the tradition and customs of that particular area.”
He further added that the issue of child marriage should be address in the grassroots level by creating awareness. He also assured help from the district administration by initiating signature campaigning on the prevention of child marriage in the concerned district.
Chairperson of NEDAN Foundation, Digambar Narzary said, “Child Marriage is a social evil which should be prevented and it’s you and me who are responsible and should act to stop the social evil.”
Dr Chiranjeeb Kakoti, Director, NESPYM and coordinator, ACRNA in his speech mentioned that ACRNA is especially working for the rights of the children.
He said ACRNA’s main aim is to work in the six districts of the State where child marriage cases are rampant.
These districts are Dhemaji, Barpeta, Kokrajhar, Dhubri, Kamrup Metro and Lakhimpur.
