Breakthrough, a Delhi-based non-government organisation, has launched a unique campaign to address child marriages in Bihar.

The NGO is using another NGO Gramvaani’s mobile radio service “Jharkhand Mobile Vaani” (a popular mobile radio service in the neighbouring state) as a tool to raise awareness on the problem. As a part of its campaign — Nation Against Early Marriage — Breakthrough produces talk shows and advertisements for Gramvaani’s mobile radio service.

Anyone from anywhere can listen to the programmes produced by Breakthrough on Gramvaani if he/she calls on 08800097458.

Listeners can also record the audio programmes, all of which are related to child marriages. The next listeners can hear the recordings.

Observers believe that such kinds of campaign are needed in Bihar because early marriages have become a norm in the rural parts of the state.

Before launching the campaign in Gaya and Hazaribagh in Jharkhand, Breakthrough also carried out a survey to find the number of early marriages in the state. According to its findings, the rate of early marriages in Bihar is 69.6 per cent compared to Jharkhand with 58.1 per cent.

Talking about its campaign, which was launched in Bihar and Jharkhand in September, Shobha S.V., the manager of multimedia in Breakthrough, said: “We came up with the campaign after analysing a research carried out by us. We found too many incidents of child marriages in Bihar and Jharkhand during our research. So we thought of the campaign.”

On how many listeners have showed interest in the programme so far, Shobha said: “It has touched around 1 lakh in the past two months. But very few people express their views after hearing our programme. We want to increase this number.”