Low literacy level and weak enforcement of laws contribute to child marriages in Odisha, according to a study by UNICEF and Action Aid, an international non-government organisation.
The results of the study released at a workshop on ‘Preventing child marriages’ here on Thursday, say that in Odisha 11 per cent girls and 2 per cent boys in the age-group of 15 to 18 years are married.
The study which analysed the Annual Health Survey of three years (2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13) says Odisha is one of the States where child marriage is still practiced.
According to 2011 Census, 1,71,193 girls under 18 are married while the figure for the boys of the same age group is 38,965.
The highest child marriage is found in districts where literacy is low. In Jagatsinghpur, female literacy is 84.1 per cent and child marriage of girls in 0.6 per cent. On the contrary, the percentage of child marriage in undivided Koraput, where literacy is very low, is high.
The analysis also blames weak enforcement of Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (PCMA) 2006 for the prevalence of this social malady.
