Bal Vivah Mukt Bharat Campaign is a Government of India initiative aimed at eliminating child marriage in the country through a multi-stakeholder approach involving government agencies, civil society organisations, communities and citizens. It was launched by the Ministry of Women and Child Development.

Key Features

• Target Areas: Focuses on seven high-burden states – West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Tripura, Assam and Andhra Pradesh – and nearly 300 high-burden districts with child marriage rates above the national average.
• Target Year: Calls upon all States and Union Territories to formulate action plans to reduce child marriage rates to below 5% by 2029.
• Child Marriage-Free Bharat Portal: A dedicated digital platform launched to:
  • Raise awareness about child marriage.
  • Enable citizens to register complaints regarding child marriage.
  • Facilitate monitoring of cases and progress under the campaign.
  • Improve public access to information and support services.

• Monitoring Mechanism:

• • Complaints registered on the portal are forwarded directly to the concerned Child Marriage Prohibition Officers (CMPOs).
  • States and UTs are required to register their CMPOs on the portal to facilitate real-time monitoring.
  • Nodal officers at the Central level will oversee portal monitoring.
  • Strengthens supervision and evaluation of CMPOs to ensure effective prevention of child marriage and assistance to affected individuals.

Progress in Reducing Child Marriage

– According to government data, the prevalence of child marriage declined from 47.4% in 2006 to 23.3% during 2019–21.