Abduction Of Girls Drops Amid 50% Rise In Child Marriages In Odisha During COVID Pandemic

Bhubaneswar: Odisha witnessed a 50 per cent increase in child marriages during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 64 child marriages took between 2020 and 2021, the highest in the last decade, according to the latest report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).

The number of cases registered under The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, stood at 24 in 2020 and 22 in 2019 in the state. In 2021, the number of cases registered was 2.7 times more than that registered in 2020.

The number of child marriages held during the last ten years in Odisha stood at 164 which shows that more than 50 per cent of such marriages since 2011 were registered in 2020 and 2021 alone.

The NCRB report reveals that at least 50 minor girls were kidnapped/ abducted for marriage last year, while the number of such cases was 92 the previous year.

However, child rights activists are of the view that most of these marriages go unreported and the actual number of violations under The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act will be much higher. Many cases in the rural areas are not reported to the police, they feel.

The rise in child marriage incidents might have taken place due to several reasons including loss of livelihood, lack of monitoring by officials concerned and closure of schools, experts opine.

However, variation is noticed in the data of the NCRB report and the findings of the National Family Health Survey- 5 (NFHS-5). The NFSH had found out that child marriages in the state had dropped by 0.8 per cent in the last six years. Since the sample size taken for NFHS was small due to the Covid pandemic, the data on child marriages was limited.