Image for representation purpose only. , Photo credit: Sandeep Saxena
The Government of West Bengal and UNICEF have unveiled tools to accelerate their joint initiative focusing on community participation to end child marriage, gender inequality and gender-based violence.
The West Bengal State Rural Livelihoods Mission (WBSRLM), under the aegis of the ‘Anandadhara’ project, has been organizing self-help groups (SHGs) since September last year to form child-friendly ‘sanghas’ (groups) to end child marriage and other Including. Children were abused in the state.
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Speaking at an event on Friday, WBSRLM CEO Vibhu Goyal said that various departments of the state government and UNICEF are working together so that these malpractices end once and for all.
“Without community participation, it is difficult to move forward. Promotion of better practices by SHG members, their families and their extended families and introduction of community-based monitoring systems is critical to achieving success in child protection and child development issues.” Goyal was quoted as saying in a UNICEF release.
Under the umbrella of the flagship rural livelihood mission ‘Andhadhara’, West Bengal is one of the top states in the country with over 10.45 lakh SHGs.
“We are also focusing on creating a mechanism of self-confidence among women so that child marriage and other social evils can be rooted out,” said Mr. Goyal.
Emphasizing on the monitoring of the process, he said, “If the process is not monitored then it is not known where and what steps to take to achieve success.” Tools to track project milestones, including prevention of child marriage, child trafficking, and detection of teen pregnancy, will be sent to ‘associations’ over the next two weeks.
The National Family Health Survey Report-V shows that about 48% of rural girls in the state are married at an early age.
In recent times, especially after the Covid pandemic, the incidence of child marriage has increased in all the districts of the state. This program will be expanded to 110 associations in the coming financial year to play an active role in preventing child marriage and protection of child rights.
“Regular discussion at all levels on a specified social issue for awareness, self-monitoring by SHGs and tracking the status of girl child in their locality with the help of charts, visuals and other audio-visual methods are being planned to be implemented as part of these devices,” Mr Goyal said.
WBSRLM in collaboration with UNICEF has developed trackers, SHG talking points, thematic messages and posters for adolescent girls to promote empowerment and track the progress of the initiative.
“Once we implement the tools at the community level, these trackers and documents will bring a big change in the society to prevent these social evils. This initiative is aimed at creating a protective environment for children, adolescent girls and women and Will help address practices like child marriage and gender-based violence in society, said Mohd Mohiuddin, UNICEF chief in West Bengal at the event.
He said that the state government has been requested to involve SHGs in the initiative as the members have the advantage of being known and recognized in the community and can take preventive measures as well as feedback to avoid these practices. can provide facilities.