Pic: Umesh Marpalli

Daijiworld media Network – Udupi (HB)

Udupi, Jan 23: “Karnataka State Child Rights Protection Commission, Bengaluru, district administration, zilla panchayat Udupi district, department of Women and Child Development, Public Education department and District Child Protection Unit Udupi district, have been jointly conducting an awareness and creative workshop on prohibition of child marriage and child rights protection in the district,” said State Child Right Human Rights Protection commission member Vanitha Thorvi.

Speaking at press club, Brahmagiri here on Wednesday, January 23, she said, “A movie titled ‘Sandhigda’, a child marriage based film will be presented at seven theatres in Udupi district at 9 am on January 24. The commission has arranged two vehicles to create awareness on the same subject. India stands fifth in the world in child marriage. There are complaints over child marriage, child labour and school dropouts. This commission is working as monitoring committee in these cases.

“Around 3,500 students had watched the movie on January 21. The commission intends to eradicate child marriage from the society. The police department and media are also working for it.

“Three cases of child marriage have been reported from the district, with regards to a migrant family. Forced marriage is also a crime,” she said.

She further informed that Udupi is the fourth district where the workshop is being held at Vijayapura, Koppal, and Bagalkote.

“‘Sandhigda’ is a film of 90 minutes. In order to create awareness, the film will be presented at St Cecily School auditorium at 11 am. A procession will be held at 9 am, flagged off from Clock Tower,” she informed.

“All schools should form old students union because old students can strengthen today’s generation,” she said.

“Let Udupi receive 'Child marriage free district award' soon,” she concluded.

Veena of Women and Child Welfare department, Sheshasyana, DDPI, and Prabhakar Acharya were present.