Advika – Empowering Girls in a Unique Way
Children, youth, parents, community member and government officials come together with UNICEF to end child marriage in Odisha
“Everyone told my mother to marry me off. They said, ‘Now that you have married your elder daughter, how do you expect to sustain yourself with such a small shop and at the same time send your daughter to engineering college?’ My mother was influenced by their words and told me that I must get married. I refused! I told her I wanted a job and be successful, but my mother was not convinced.” – Aasha Sahoo, a young member of Advika
As the early morning sun rises over coastal Gopalpur, Odisha (Eastern India), that new sun heralds an opportunity for children. It’s a chance to go to school, for an education that will help them fulfil their dreams and aspirations. But for girls in particular, all of this can come to a screeching halt when they have their first period.
With a population of over 8.3 million children between 10-19 years, Odisha accounts for 20.5 per cent of child marriage cases reported in India, below the national average of 23.3 per cent (NFHS 5 data). The state has also seen a decline in the Sex Ratio at Birth from 894 girls per 1,000 boys. More strikingly, 7.6 per cent of adolescent girls are pregnant or become mothers by the age of 19 years. In rural Gopalpur, girls are very much up against the odds.
Bhoj, as it’s known, is the local tradition in Odisha of celebrating a girl’s first period. Relatives come over, there’s music and dancing for seven continuous days to welcome a girl into womanhood. It’s also considered a sign that she is ready to get married.
“At the feast, there were some people who wanted me to become their daughter-in-law. But during that time, I did not know much about marriage or if it was good or bad. Among them, the person who wanted to marry me brought me a lehenga (Indian traditional dress). I was only 14 year
Child marriage continued to be an issue in the area. Sujata Subhadarshani, an Anganwadi Worker shares, “During that time, child marriage was not taken seriously and was prevalent across the village. I used to tell everyone about the dangers of child marriage and young pregnancy. It would lead to stillborn babies and the death of the mother.”
Advika – “I am unique”
In 2019, the Government of Odisha, in collaboration with UNICEF, launched a five-year (2019–24) Strategic Action Plan (SAP) to eliminate child marriage in the state by 2030. The plan involves various departments, civil society, communities and families, adolescents and young people. This led to the Advika programme being launched in October 2020.
“Earlier there used to be a lot of child marriage, because in the village here, girls are considered to be a burden. They believe that it is better to get them married as early as possible.”
Advika aims to prevent child marriage through various strategies including strengthening state structures and mechanisms, facilitating meetings and discussions between different departments, raising awareness about child protection issues, empowering adolescents, and community involvement.
To achieve these goals, the programme includes forming multi-sectoral task forces, enhancing the capacities of district and sub-district systems, developing a comprehensive training package and monitoring framework, allocating adequate resources, establishing a state-level steering committee, and implementing the Advika scheme.
The programme stresses on empowering adolescents through education, skill development, and leadership training, promoting their participation in community engagement, and fostering platforms for civic engagement.
“With the help of UNICEF and SNT, we have created awareness campaigns and also imparted training to our staff and workers. The recent government schemes such as Advika Clubs and Sakhi Saheli, we also include boys to reduce gender disparity,” says Sonaprabha Das, Child Development Protection Officer.
A Community Responsibility
When it comes to community engagement, Advika is bringing together all members and sections and empowering them to end child marriage.
However, getting the community to accept that child marriage is against the rights of a child was a big challenge.
Sasmita Kumari, a sarpanch (village head) says, “Anganwadi workers (AWWs) would go to homes, and people would treat them very badly. They would harass them and react violently.” She took it upon herself to go from home to home along with the AWWs. Now, if any instance of child marriage is reported, they know they can approach her to get support.
To reinforce the message, Sasmita organizes rallies in her community to reiterate the dangers and consequences of child marriage. She says, “Through rallies, we try to represent as many problems in our society as we can. We are urging people not to marry their young children. If they disregard it, then that would be unlawful and would be considered a crime.”
Schools, including teachers, have had an equally important and impactful role in bringing down the number of child marriages. Rajesh Mohanty, Headmaster at the local government school has taken it upon himself to make this his priority and has been an advocate for his students. “When I got involved in this programme, we also had to hold a combined meeting with adolescent girls and their parents. We oppose the proposal of early child marriage; we highlight the children in it. At the PTA meeting, we especially involve parents and explain the positives and negatives of it.”
Embracing the Right to Life
The impact of Advika is clear to see. Gopalpur is now child marriage-free. While reports still sporadically come in, the system that’s been put in place stresses the need and urgency to prevent child marriage at all costs.
Abida Praveen says, “Advika has contributed the most. All anganwadi centres have an Advika programme every Saturday. All girls, whether school-going or even out of school, gather there and discuss issues like child marriage. All the discussion regarding the bad effects of early marriage on a girl’s body and mind takes place there, so this has made a huge difference and we have been able to curb child marriages to a great extent.”
Most importantly, it’s the changes it has brought to the lives of girls.
Through the Advika initiative, over 2.5 million adolescents have been engaged. Over 448,000 frontline workers have been trained including more than 300,000 peer leaders, known as Sakhi-Sahelis and Sakha-Bandhus, who have been identified and trained on child rights and protection issues, including child marriage, child labour, child trafficking, and child sexual abuse. They have also received training in leadership, communication, and life skills. Additionally, regular quarterly meetings, called ‘A Day for Children,’ are held to review progress on key child protection issues.
Over 11,000 villages have been declared child marriage-free. And in 2022, approx. 950 child marriages were prevented. This initiative was honoured with the SKOCH (Gold) Award for Governance & Innovation in 2020-21.
“It is very important that Advika programme runs in all the villages. Because people need to get rid of the idea that a girl is a burden on the family and needs to be married for them to get rid of that burden. This mentality needs to be eradicated from the entire Odisha. We need to show that a girl is no less than a boy. She can do the same things a boy can do. She can get a job, manage a family and create a future for herself,” Aasha shares, echoing the passion and purpose of her friends and peers.
Sasmita, who had lost her best friend to child marriage, sums it up well when she says, “To raise a child, a village is needed which includes teachers, parents and a family. After that only a child can grow properly and prosper, they need everyone’s blessing.”
