Sahiyas to stop child marriages

Principal Secretary Health and Family Welfare Nidhi Khare on Monday said that tracking of couples who are married in teen age could be done by the Sahiyas. The Sahiyas would identify and counsel them for having a child at the right age, she said, instructing the department officials to start a special training programme for Sahiyas across the State.

Khare, while holding a review meeting on child marriage and pregnancy at IPH, Namkum on Monday said that it was the root cause of several health issues. Child marriage leads to pregnancy and childbirth at a very tender age and this results in MMR, IMS, Low birth weight, malnutrition etc. She asked to prepare a special module for the ANMs and start training by July 25. She also asked the RKSK cell incharge to send a proposal to the Government of India for observing Youth Health Day in the 19 aspirational districts of the State.

The Principal Secretary said that there were several platforms to complain about child marriage but people do not know where and whom to complain. The department needs to spread awareness in an extensive way and ensure that the complaints are addressed in a timely manner, she added.  Khare asked the officials to make schemes to curb child marriage incidents and asked the education department representative to include teen age marriage in teachers’ training curriculum.

She said that there was need to coordinate and plan with different departments to stop child marriage. It would require a planned approach based on real data from research and therefore a committee need to be made by the health department.

Notably, child marriage in the country is 26.8 per cent, while in Jharkhand it is 38 per cent. The highest percentage of child marriage is in Godda district 63.5 per cent.

Director in Chief, Health Services, Dr Sumant Mishra; Nodal officers of IEC, Adolescent Health, Child Health, WCD along with representatives of different departments, JSLPS, UNICEF, IPE Global, NHM were present on the occasion.