Around 80 media representatives from Indore, Dhar and other parts of Malwa region and students of journalism had joined in a meeting organized by School of Journalism and Media, DAVV Indore and UNICEF. The theme of the meeting was to say 'no to child marriage'.

Dr Sonalee Nargunde, Head of Department of School of Journalism and Media, DAVV said that media has played a major role in highlighting the issue of child marriage and violence against children. She said with positive stories, let's keep the momentum and do raise discourse on the issue to make sure that we all say no to child marriage, which is violation of child rights.

This meeting was part of joint work of two bodies to create a continuous discourse on the theme of child marriage, particularly linking journalists at district level, said Anil Gulati, Communication Specialist, UNICEF, Madhya Pradesh.

Speaking at the meeting Advaita Marathe, Child Protection Officer, UNICEF, MP said that as per NFHS year 2015- 16, 32.4 % under age marriages happened in Madhya Pradesh, but steps have been taken by the State.

She said it is a social issue where we all need to join hands to build a long term campaign to stop child marriages.

She added that ‘girls who marry before 18 are likely to drop out of school thus impacting their education, while they are more likely to experience domestic violence and have challenging economic and health outcomes’.

The need is to spread awareness of the adverse impact of child marriages of girls especially, prevent such marriages from happening by reporting to Childline 1098 or local police or anganwadi worker and create opportunities for the development of girls by strengthening the effective implementation of schemes and programmes for adolescents, she added.

Media representatives spoke about the challenges they see on the issue of violence against children, child marriages, child labour and its linkages with child marriage.