A network of non-governmental organisations has launched a statewide campaign to strengthen the fight against child marriage in Karnataka, with plans to establish village-level surveillance, improve child-protection mechanisms and help keep vulnerable adolescents in education across all 31 districts.
Led by the Just Rights for Children (JRC) network, the initiative is intended to take the Centre’s ‘Bal Vivah Mukt Bharat’ campaign to the gram panchayat level. Eight partner organisations have divided responsibilities for the state, while the wider JRC network has mobilised more than 300 NGOs across India after a national convention in New Delhi.
Mangaluru-based People’s Action for Development (PADI) will oversee Dakshina Kannada and Udupi. Other partner organisations named in the initiative are Prachodana in Hassan and Shivamogga, Spandana in Belagavi, Sneha in Ballari and Margadarshi in Raichur.
The coalition’s work will focus on making statutory child-protection committees functional in every gram panchayat. The organisations also plan to monitor migrant households and track adolescents who leave school, with the stated aim of ensuring that children up to the age of 18 remain enrolled in school or move into technical education through institutions such as Industrial Training Institutes.
The campaign has identified migrant settlements as a particular area of concern in coastal Karnataka. Many migrant workers in the region come from North Karnataka and other states, and their children may face risks including school dropout, child labour, trafficking and early marriage, according to the concerns raised during the initiative.
These issues were discussed at a recent district-level consultation in Udupi, where DIET principal Dr Ashok Kamath reportedly referred to instances of teenage pregnancies linked to underage marriages. The initiative comes as awareness efforts have helped keep reported child marriage incidence relatively low in coastal Karnataka, while the coalition argues that migrant communities require closer monitoring and sustained local intervention.
The network’s campaign has also received international attention following the United Nations General Assembly’s declaration of November 27 as the International Day for the Elimination of Child Marriage, Early and Forced Marriage. The initiative was reportedly championed by JRC founder Bhuvan Ribhu.
“While legislation and administrative mechanisms exist on paper, genuine eradication requires measurable accountability at the gram panchayat level,” Reni D’Souza, CEO of PADI, said. “Our joint initiative focuses on tracking vulnerable school dropouts, empowering local child protection committees and providing sustained legal and rehabilitation support so that no child is pushed into early marriage.”
The NGOs will work with district administrations as they expand the campaign across Karnataka and seek to strengthen local child-protection committees, school retention measures and legal and rehabilitation support for vulnerable children.
