29/03/2023
Leading child rights NGO, Child Rights and You – CRY organized a one-day Regional Consultation on Child Protection with a special focus on Child Marriage - Situational Analysis of Child Marriage and Recommendations based on collective learning and experience at the YMCA in Mumbai.
The discussion was attended by representatives of the Maharashtra State Commission for Women as well as officials and representatives from Women and Child Development Maharashtra, State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR) Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh, Mumbai Police, representatives from Tata Institute of Social Service (TISS), Yuva, Majlis, CCDT, Childline and others.
Child Rights and You strives to bridge the gap between systems and communities to ensure a safe and healthy childhood for all children, particularly girls. To ensure child safety and prevent child marriages, CRY believes that it is crucial to bring the topic of child marriage to the forefront through joint efforts with the government.
“It was a very fruitful discussion organised by CRY. The issue was very good and I congratulate them for organizing this. The topic of child marriage has been a top priority for the Women and Child Development (WCD) of Maharashtra and we have been taking all the necessary steps to see that WCD is present whenever any issue related to this arises,” said Deepa Thakur, Deputy Secretary, Maharashtra Women's Commission.
Kumar Nilendu, General Manager - CRY West Region said, “CRY has strong interventions on child protection focussed on child marriage across the country. The interventions of CRY on child marriage are designed based on analysis of the situation from the ground. CRY also works with all other stakeholders including the concerned govt departments and self-governance structures. We must continue to learn and build upon our programmatic interventions on the ground. One of the important facts is that child marriage is a social issue and hence it requires that we all come together to address this issue. With this background, CRY organized this regional consultation on Child Marriage wherein we have brought different stakeholders on a common platform to build synergy and address this issue collaboratively and effectively. We have received support from the Maharashtra commission for women, WCD Department, SCPCR, TISS, and NGOs working on the ground and importantly we also invited Sarpanchs’ from two states to deliberate on the issue of child marriage and resolve to work together on this issue.”