00:00Jharkhand is working very significantly in addressing child marriage, as India is, and
00:07India has a strong commitment to eradicate child marriage. UNICEF once helped India to
00:15eradicate things like polio, for example, and we have no doubt that we will work the
00:19journey together. Unfortunately, still, a significant number of girls married before
00:26the age of 18. You were asking, in Jharkhand, it's above the 30%, but still, overall, across
00:33India, one in four girls across the country married before the age of 18. India has half,
00:42has reduced by half the number of child marriages, so there is still a long journey, but we need
00:48to understand that we are in the right direction. We just need to accelerate efforts to make
00:53sure that child marriage is something from the past.
00:56Jharkhand is a vibrant estate. For me, it's always a pleasure to come here. UNICEF has
01:04state offices in 13 locations, and it's an amazing learning ground. There are challenges, like
01:15everywhere else, from the perspective of child marriage, which you just talked about, nutrition,
01:21school dropouts, and others. But what I would really like to focus on is what is the window
01:26of opportunity that Jharkhand has. Over 22% of the population in Jharkhand are adolescents.
01:35That means that they are in the second window of growth and opportunities only after the early
01:42childhood development. If we invest in adolescents, that is the age from 10 to 19, we are going to
01:49have children that grow into parents that are healthier, that they decide to delay marriage,
01:56that they will ensure that their children go to school, that they remain healthier.
02:02In Jharkhand, the situation of child marriage is better than before, but now it is 32%. And the
02:10teenage pregnancy is also 10%. We are in the state of the whole, we are in the fourth. We are in the
02:16state of the whole. We are in the fourth. We can be down from the bottom. So that's why we have to do a lot of
02:23things. So that's why we have to do a lot of things. And what's the reason behind it?
02:28If you have to do that, it is a big thing. If you are in the fourth, so you can tell you to
02:30you can tell you something about first of the time that you work with or get divorced.
02:32And what's the reason behind it? The social norms, the value of the girl child is important.
02:33There are many reasons for drop-out.
02:36There is no secondary school.
02:39Or they are called for a child's early marriage.
02:45There are deep-seated social norms.
02:50The value of a girl's child. That is important.
02:53And also the opportunities.
02:57If there are opportunities for employment,
03:03there will be less child marriage.
03:04If there will be more education,
03:05there will be less child marriage.
03:07Also, as I said,
03:08the value of a girl's child is very important.
03:11There is self-arrange marriage.
03:13There is also a self-arrange marriage.
03:15There is also a lot of things.
03:17Therefore, it is important that it is multisectoral.
03:20The whole factor is multisectoral.
03:22These are multisectoral factors.
03:24So, the approach also has to be multi-pronged.
03:27There is no one department that can work on this.
03:31You have to work with the community.
03:33You have to work with the boys.
03:35You have to work with the male participation.
03:37You have to work with the girls.
03:39You have to work with the parents.
03:43You have to work with the teachers.
03:45You have to work with the health department.
03:49And of course, the child protection.
03:51But of course there must be a new personality.
03:54Women will work with it as a child.
04:08And after all this is both unclean.
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