India’s baby safety methods have oscillated between benevolent welfare and post-violation enforcement; neither is supplied to forestall hurt. Odisha is pioneering a 3rd pathway: a preventive, adolescent-centred governance mannequin rooted in hyper-local vigilance and real-time knowledge. The State Technique and Motion Plan to Finish Little one Marriage (SSAP 2024), ADVIKA, Jashoda, and SUBHADRA collectively institutionalise rights-based governance because the norm.
The urgency is obvious. The Nationwide Household Well being Survey (NFHS)-5 reveals that Odisha’s whole fertility fee has dropped to 1.8, down from 2.1 in 2015-16, beneath substitute stage. The 2011 Census pegged the inhabitants at 4.1 crore; that is projected to succeed in 4.9 crore by 2036. Over these 25 years, the State will see 25% fewer births, which roughly interprets to 70 lakh fewer youngsters. This demographic contraction, coupled with an ageing inhabitants, alters the coverage panorama.
These shifts intersect with entrenched inequities: ladies represent 49.46% of the inhabitants; 83% of residents reside in rural areas, and 83.6% of ladies reside in these areas. About 40% of Odisha belongs to the Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste communities. Coverage can’t afford to be reactive; it should anticipate vulnerability.
Regardless of measurable progress in a number of areas, Odisha’s journey in direction of gender justice faces structural headwinds. The intercourse ratio at beginning has declined to 894 (NFHS-5). Odisha ranks excessive nationally in cyber-crimes in opposition to ladies, with 542 circumstances (2.4 per lakh). In 2022, 1,120 individuals have been trafficked, together with 140 minor ladies. The State registered 5,581 lacking youngsters. These statistics signify a deeper malaise.
Odisha’s current reforms mirror this recognition. The revised SSAP 2024 reorients child-marriage prevention round household strengthening, group surveillance, institutional convergence, and accountability. The outcomes are noteworthy: between 2019 and 2024, the State prevented over 14,000 baby marriages; 13,536 villages and 954 Gram Panchayats declared themselves child-marriage-free. The institutional structure has expanded accordingly. In 2024, Odisha appointed over 10,000 baby marriage prohibition officers and greater than 63,000 baby marriage info officers, making a decentralised vigilance system.
If SSAP is the protecting framework, ADVIKA is its empowerment engine. Reaching 23.14 lakh adolescents, the programme promotes management and company. It has cultivated 90,000 sakhis and sahelis and 84,000 sakhās and bandhus, who perform as peer educators and first responders to forestall baby marriage, trafficking, and abuse.
In the meantime, the combination of Little one Helpline 1098, Girls’s Helpline 181, and ERSS (112) has decreased response occasions. Little one Assist Desks at 10 main railway stations function frontline defence in opposition to trafficking and unsafe migration. The Amari Shishu dashboard hyperlinks a number of databases to trace weak youngsters and guarantee scheme convergence.
Prevention can’t succeed with out social safety. The Ashirbad scheme has supported over 51,000 COVID-orphaned youngsters, stopping distress-induced early marriage, or labour. Jashoda supported 1,486 youngsters in 2024–25. A renewed emphasis on family-based care — kinship, foster care or adoption — has led to 278 adoptions in 2024–25, indicating decreased reliance on institutional care.
Complementing these measures are the Orphan Survey and Incapacity Survey, which establish the State’s most invisible youngsters and guarantee well timed linkage to providers.
Financial company completes Odisha’s empowerment structure. Subhadra has enabled over 1.1 crore ladies to open digital financial institution accounts, asserting monetary independence with no consideration, not a privilege. Subhadra Plus interventions additional safeguard the lady baby throughout each stage, preserving her at school, connecting her to abilities and enterprise, and surrounding her with networks of friends and safety. Collectively, these initiatives flip finance into freedom. Odisha’s experiment reveals what will be achieved when baby safety is handled not as a welfare obligation however as a governance precedence.
Shubha Sarma is Principal Secretary, Division of Girls and Little one Improvement, Authorities of Odisha.
Anu Garg is Improvement Commissioner-cum-Extra Chief Secretary, Planning and Convergence Division, Authorities of Odisha
Printed – December 16, 2025 09:27 am IST
