Prajnya’s campaign against gender violence begins

The Chennai-based non-profit organisation’s report found that there was a rise in child marriages, child labour, domestic violence, cyber harassment and other forms of violence during the pandemic

The annual ‘16 days campaign against Gender Violence’, initiated by the Prajnya Trust, a Chennai-based non-profit organisation working on issues related to peace, justice and security, began with the release of the Gender Violence in India 2021 report, on Thursday.

The report indicated the impact of the pandemic on many forms of gender-based violence over the last year. Kausumi Saha, the author and curator of the report, said that child marriage and forced marriage had been steadily rising during the pandemic owing to higher economic instability. “Children from lower socio-economic groups could not stay enrolled in schools and while more boys were pushed towards child labour, more girls were married off early. Early marriage is also a huge contributor towards the negative mental health of adolescents,” Ms. Saha said.