Niranjan Tripathy, Senior journalist
Despite strict laws against child mar-riage, the practice continues in Odisha without any significant legal conse-quences. Village Welfare Committees across the state have painted walls with messages such as “Say No to Child Mar-riage” and warnings that marrying girls below 18 and boys below 21 is a punishable offense.
According to the law, parents or guardians con-ducting such marriages face up to two years in jail and a fine of 1 lakh. However, even with these legal provisions, child marriages are still happening. Deputy Chief Minister recently in-formed the state assembly that 8,159 child mar-riages have taken place in Odisha in the past six years. This raises an important question-have any parents been jailed or fined for violat-ing the law? No clear answer has been pro-vided. If the law is not enforced, what is its purpose? People question how child marriages can occur in villages despite the presence of Anganwadi and ASHA workers, who should be aware of such incidents. Unless the gov-ernment takes strict action, child marriage will continue alongside the unenforced law, leaving no doubt about its ineffectiveness.
