According to the National Crime Records Bureau’s (NCRB) most recent data, Odisha experienced a 50% increase in child marriages during the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau’s (NCRB) most recent data, Odisha experienced a 50% increase in child marriages during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the data, 64 child marriages occurred between 2020 and 2021, the most in the previous ten years. The number of instances under The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, that were registered in 2020 was 24, compared to 22 in 2019. In Odisha, there were 2.7 times as many instances reported in 2021 as there were in 2020. Odisha has witnessed 164 child marriages during the past ten years, meaning that more than half of all such unions since 2011 have been documented in the years 2020 and 2021 alone.
According to the report, at least 50 young girls were kidnapped or taken for marriage last year. The previous year, there were 92. Because these were the only examples reported to police, child rights advocates believe there were many more violations of The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act. They claimed that not all incidents are reported and FIRs are registered in rural areas.
“There are various factors that contributed to the surge in these marriages during the epidemic, including loss of employment, a lack of oversight by relevant officials, and most critically, school closures. Girls were confined to their homes, and the sudden financial strain that their parents felt due to the loss of their source of income drove many of them to marry off their daughters young, according to activist Ghasiram Panda.
The National Family Health Survey- 5 (NFHS-5) found that the number of child marriages in the State had decreased by 0.8 percent (pc) during the previous six years, which the NCRB data does not support. While the NFHS-5 (2019–21) reports that 20.5 percent of women aged 20–24 married before becoming 18 years old, the NFHS-4 reported 21.3 percent (2015-16). According to sources, the statistics on child marriages were scarce because the epidemic resulted in a tiny sample size for the NFHS. Officials from the WCD department stated that actions are being conducted to eradicate the social ill.
Prasanta Patnaik 
amfnews