Chief minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday invoked Mahatma Gandhi once again, this time to announce a campaign against child marriage and dowry from October 2.

"We will launch a vigorous campaign against child marriage and the dowry system prevalent in society on the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi's birthday on October 2 this year," Nitish said during the 141st birth anniversary celebrations of Saint Gadge Ji Maharaj in Begusarai, around 125km east of Patna. "These are social evils that should be removed from the society."

Not only was child marriage illegal, Nitish stressed, but it also led to several social and health problems for which it should be abolished.

"Dowry system is another social evil. Previously it was prevalent among the affluent classes but now it has spread its tentacles among all classes," Nitish said. "It should also be uprooted from society. "Do not attend a marriage if you know that dowry has been given. Just speaking won't do, we will have to implement it," he said while speaking at the function held to remember Saint Gadge, who was born in a washerman's family at Shengaon in Amravati district of Maharashtra and preached community service and community sharing.

This is the second consecutive year Nitish has chosen October 2 to launch his ambitious schemes. Last year he launched the student credit card scheme on Gandhi Jayanti, and also implemented the new Bihar Prohibition and Excise Act 2016 on October 2.

Earlier in the day, Nitish unveiled the statue of doctor and social worker Pijushendu Gupta (popularly known as Dr P. Gupta) at Viplavi Pustakalaya campus at Mathihani in Begusarai district.

"I had been hearing about Dr P. Gupta for a long time. It is easy to talk about leaving Patna and residing in a remote village like Bihat in this (Begusarai) district, but is very difficult to actually do so. But he did this to serve the people," Nitish said at the event in the presence of Dr Gupta's son Shaibal Gupta, Asian Development Research Institute member secretary. "Had Dr Gupta wanted he could have easily earned far more than he actually did; but he charged a token fee of just Rs 2. He worked towards making the lives of the poor and the deprived better."

A multifaceted personality, Dr Gupta was also a historian who dabbled in the fine arts and wrote plays, poetry and short stories with equal dexterity. With his wife and two children, he voluntarily migrated to Bihat in 1959, leaving behind their sprawling bungalow "Swarnasan" in Patna in what was considered a classic case of reverse migration.

Wedded to communist and Marxist thoughts, he was also mindful of the limitations of the state and advocated due space to market forces and promotion of grassroots capitalism.