LADO CAMPAIGN IN

MADHYA PRADESH
An Initiative for eradicating Child Marriage
Table of Contents

LADO: An initiative for eradicating Child Marriage................................................................2

Abstract:.................................................................................................................................2
Child Marriage in India:.........................................................................................................2
LADO Abhiyan: A rights-based campaign to precent child marriage in Madhya Pradesh...2
Key Objectives of Campaign..................................................................................................3
Implementation of campaign..................................................................................................3
 Conceptual Innovation
LADO: An initiative for eradicating Child Marriage
Abstract:
Child marriages in India is an age-old concept, it has religious and social sanctions and is
prevalent in all parts of India. It is a violation of human rights for boys and girls, which
indirectly affects performance of human development indicators. The assignment talks about
“Lado campaign”, which received Prime Minister’s award for Excellence in Public
Administration in 2014.The project has been initiated by the Department of Women and
Empowerment, Madhya Pradesh. Its objective was to sensitise the population about the bad
consequences of child marriages. The project thus aims in creating an environment for the
eradication of child marriages in the whole state. The project thus has components like
training such as sensitisation, training of core groups, promotional campaign, and eventually
prevention of Child Marriage in the state.

Child Marriage1 in India:

According to National Family Health Survey (2005-2006), 37.3% of women aged between
20-25 were married by 18 years, of this 2.6% were married before they turned 13, and 4.5%
were married when they were between 16 and 17. States which reported a high percentage of
child marriage were Rajasthan 65.2%, Uttar Pradesh 58.6%, Madhya Pradesh 57.3%. The
various initiatives taken by the government which aimed for prevention of child marriage and
empowerment are:
 Apna Beti Apna Dhan (1994-2005)
 Balika Samriddhi Yojana (1997-2004)
 Kishori Shakti Yojana (since 2000)
Several other policies have advocated for delay in the marriage of children and the age for
conceiving the first child. This also resulted in the decline of child marriage rates but the
implementation through law remains a big challenge still.

LADO Abhiyan: A rights-based campaign to prevent child marriage in Madhya

Pradesh

In Madhya Pradesh child marriage is a social evil. According to the Annual Health survey,
Madhya Pradesh was ranked fourth in the cases of Child Marriages. Situational Analysis
done on the state cited factors such as social custom, safety of girl, pressure of dowry, and
land related issues to be responsible for Child Marriage 2. It was also noted that the
1
Child Marriage is defined as formal or informal union before 18 years of age which was ratified by the United
Nations, as a part of the convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989
2
Sengupta, Sreerupa & Singh, Balbir & srivastava, kalpana. (2016). Right to consent: Lado Campaign in Madhya
Pradesh. ASCI Journal of Management. 45. 42-55.
community was unaware of the consequences of early marriage and provisions laid under
Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006. Adding to that, the local community was strongly
submerged in following the social customs more. Further, the implementation of the Act was
limited to issuing circulars and undertaking.
In 2013, The Department of Women, Government of Madhya Pradesh rolled out Lado
campaign in order to prevent child marriage. Although the campaign was launched in the
entire state, but the districts with more instances of child marriages were prioritised. The
Lado campaign was chosen to be a part of state vision document of 2018.
The Directorate of women empowerment stated the mission statement of the Lado project as:

Bringing perceptible systematic change in the mind set of citizens,

transforming traditionally old customs, inculcating new perceptions by
creating of a sustainable community based human resource to advocate
eradication of child marriage, strengthening Social Accountability/
Acceptance of Law by Community
Key Objectives of Campaign
1. Inform and Educate citizen about Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006
2. Identify and train proactive members of community to create a pool of human
resource for advocacy
3. Dissuade service providers (priests and others) from conducting child marriage
4. Educating children about Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006, and nurture them to
become ambassadors/agents of change
5. Ensure economic empowerment of survivors of Child Marriage
6. Create Intergenerational equity- provide access to education to girls and boys

Implementation of campaign:

Lado campaign was launched in February 2013 on a mission mode for an entire year in the
entire state to bring perceptible change among people. It is a District Magistrate led campaign
with a coordination from department like Women and Child development, health, Education,
State Transportation Authority, Print, Doctor, etc.
Designing Lado:
The suggestions from all the stakeholders were taken for designing the campaign. Valid
suggestions and feedback from all the participants were duly incorporated for the success of
campaign. People coming from different communities were also involved to deal with area
specific customs and cultural practices to support the district authorities.
Planning the Lado campaign:
A long term sustained action plan of five year was charted out with an integrated monthly and
yearly action plans. By this the community can be made continuously informed about right
age of marriage and the Prohibition of Child marriage Act. Actions plan has been shared with
all the members of the campaign, so that the implementors can plan area specific and custom
specific programmes.
 Capacity building of all stakeholders3:

Division Workshop Priests Opinion NGO Govt. Core Women Men Boys Girls
s makers representatives officials members

Indore 14533 2699 3358 1109 6109 5694 62208 60879 13800 13225

Sagar 9962 1060 2603 3215 7548 12250 263052 267110 20720 17536

Bhopal 9678 2303 3560 3607 7327 13590 43622 52025 21060 24041

Narmadapuram 4166 286 772 790 683 1367 39751 26112 26624 44922

Ujjain 10650 2331 5823 8308 17030 27759 45378 40555 35396 27278

Jabalpur 14753 1265 5555 7696 11736 46398 138778 154140 29446 36160

Gwalior 6589 594 1735 2179 2202 6324 34955 35373 9774 9283

Chambal 4531 2103 2423 690 2422 8403 23125 27503 14816 13897

Rewa 8765 1331 1554 411 1594 9396 16796 20292 8136 14003

Shahdol 3977 4488 8782 3467 16705 40935 59297 65458 56189 59978

Total 87604 18460 36165 31472 73356 172116 726962 749447 235961 260323

3
Taken from www.mpmadhyam.com
Administrative structure:

State government

Directorate of women empowerment

District collector

Dweo

Block

Ward / village
( aww / core member / school / panchayat etc

Victim

Impact of Lado Campaign

Prior to the launch of the campaign, there was no record of child marriage through timely
intervention. However, between 2013 and 2015, a large number (81,724 marriage) cases child
marriages were prevented through timely intervention before marriage through counselling.
The number of child marriages stopped on the marriage day were computed to be (3,601
marriage). The number of FIRs against child marriage has also gone up since the launch of
the Lado campaign. As per the data, prior to the campaign only one or two FIRs were lodged.
But in 2014-15, 170 FIRs were lodged.
Apart from this the success and awareness of the campaign can be determined from the fact
that prior to the campaign, no cases of child marriages were forwarded to court. But, in 2014-
2015, 28 cases of child marriages have been forwarded to the court. The number of cases
reported under child marriage has also decreased from 42% (Annual Health Survey 2012-
2013) to 30% (National Family Health Survey 2015-2016).
Between 201 and 2016, sensitisation workshop was organised in over 40,000 schools in order
to educate children about issues related and legislations related to child marriage. 3084, child
ambassadors were created who sensitise people about child marriage and counsel them
regarding the necessity of marrying a child after the legal age of marriage (18 years for girls
and 21 years for boys).
Learnings and innovative elements of campaign:
To get a campaign successful, the participation from all the stakeholders is much needed. The
Lado campaign has seen the involvement of various stakeholders and even the participants
from different communities to deal effectively with area specific customs. Lado campaign
has also seen the inter-departmental convergence at the grassroots levels. It involved
Sarpanch, teachers, ASHA workers, and it necessitated collaboration between different
department. We have also seen the convergence of different schemes and programme like
Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, Shaurya Dal, Mukhya Mantri Kanya Daan Yojana and others.
Sustained media advocacy and traditional methods such as nukkad natak and role-play are
also a good method to spread awareness at grassroot level and have greater coverage and
effective communication.
We also learnt the importance core group members such as religious leaders, community
heads, printing press owners, caterers, traditional community cooks, band group owners and
transporters who usually have information about weddings scheduled in any area, without
their coordination the campaign can’t be a success.