Awareness programme on child marriage held in Gargaon College
SIVASAGAR: A one day training programme on prohibition of child marriage was organized by State Institute of Panchayat and Rural Development (SIPRD), Joysagar, Sivasagar in association with IQAC, Gargaon College on Thursday. The programme was inaugurated by noted academician, columnist and Principal of Gargaon College, Dr Sabyasachi Mahanta. In his inaugural address, Dr Mahanta spoke on the prevalence of norms like child marriage, Sati among others in pre-independent India. He viewed that it was unfortunate that evil practices such as child marriage exist still today in our society. Speaking about the need to end such vicious practices, he explained how child marriage affects, especially a girl child, in manifold ways by hampering her education and in many instances subjecting her to domestic violence and economic insecurity.
The objectives of the training programme were laid down by Promod Buragohain, Project Officer of SIPRD. The resource person Arpan Buragohain of SIPRD, Joysagar in his presentation dwelt on the concept and causes of child marriage and gave a statistical overview of child marriages in the country and in Assam. Discussing the consequences of child marriage, he expatiated on the life cycle of undernourishment in case of a girl child which is initiated as a result of child marriage.
The second resource person from SIPRD, Manas Jyoti Gogoi gave a presentation on the topic “Our role and strategies to end child marriage”. During his talk, he explained the various curbs imposed by government on child marriage and explained at length the different provisions of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (PCMA), 2006.
Both the resource persons engaged in a lively and interactive session with the students and answered several queries posed by the latter. The programme was moderated by Devajani Bakolial, Assistant Professor of Assamese. A significant number of students and faculty members of the college were presented on the occasion.
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