Mysore/Mysuru: ‘Bal Vivah Mukt Abhiyan’, a day-long workshop and awareness programme for District and Taluk-level Child Marriage Prohibition officers began at Kalamandira on Hunsur Road in the city this morning.

The programme has been jointly organised by the Directorate of Child Protection, Bengaluru, Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (KSCPCR),Bengaluru, Mysuru District Administration, Zilla Panchayat, District Legal Services Authority (DLSA), Women and Child Development Department, District Child Protection Unit, Police and Education Departments, Rural Literacy and Health Programme (RLHP), Child Fund Internationl, Bengaluru  and other NGOs of the district. Earlier, a rally was taken out from the old Deputy Commissioner’s office along Hunsur Road to Kalamandira, the venue of the stage programme.

Launching the rally, Additional DC P. Shivaraju said that the programme has been organised with the theme ‘Protection of Children is the responsibility of everyone’.

Pointing out that the District Administration is taking steps for making Mysuru a ‘Child Marriage Free’ district, he said that this programme will help towards achieving this goal.

“Child marriage is a social menace. Conducting marriage of under age children is not only violation of the Law, but is also a curse on girl children. As such, parents should strive for educating  girl children which will help in their empowerment. This will also help in building a better society”, he noted.

Explaining the measures taken by the District Administration for preventing girl child marriages in the district, Shivaraj appealed the members of the public to immediately call Helpline Number- 1098 and thus contribute for ending the social evil.

 During the stage programme, several Anganawadi workers and members of NGOs who worked effectively for preventing child marriages were felicitated.

KSCPCR, Bengaluru, members S.Manju and Venkatesh, Senior Civil Judge and DLSA Member-Secretary K.K. Amarnath, Child Fund International Programme Officer (Karnataka & Tamil Nadu) Shysi Jacob, District Child Protection Officer N.T. Yogesh,  Dr. K. Raghavendra Bhat, Regional Co-ordinator of UNICEF Child Protection Project, Koppal, Sampath Katti, Senior Programme Manager, RLHP, Mysuru, Prof. C.K. Jacob, Secretary, RLHP, K. Saraswathi, Director, RLHP, Dr.C. V. Sneha, Director, Directorate of Child Protection, Bengaluru and others were present.