Focus on child marriages: Warangal Rural Collector Haritha

Warangal: Girl child rights need to be protected by organising awareness camps, Warangal Rural District Collector M Haritha said. Speaking at an awareness programme that focused on the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, here on Wednesday, she emphasised the need for strengthening the village-level child protection committees, thereby to create a safe environment for the girls.

The Collector directed the line departments – Childline-1098, District Child Protection Unit, Child Development Project Officers, Police and others – to work in tandem to eradicate child marriages. Referring to the information about the child marriages, the Collector told the officials to create a sense of security among the whistleblowers.

Stressing the need for effective implementation of child rights, Haritha said that the administration would support any programme that strives for the protection of children. She directed the officials to turn villages child marriage free with the help of Sarpanches.

The Collector also directed the officials to organise project and sector level meetings at regular intervals to review the progress.

District Welfare Officer K Chinnaiah said that supervisors need to make regular visits to Anganwadi centres and submit reports to him. District Child Protection Officer G Mahender Reddy explained about child marriages and awareness programmes that took place from 2016. Medical and Health Programme Officer KS Padmasri, CDPOs Radhika, Padma, ACDPOs Bhagyalakshmi, Vidya, Udayasri, Hemalatha, Bala Raksh Bhavan Coordinator A Vijayalakshmi, DCPO staff were among others present.