Cuttack: A legal advocacy group has expressed concern over the high incidents of child marriage in the state.

The Committee for Legal Aid to Poor's legal service institute expected the state government to appoint full-time child marriage prohibition officers to create awareness, monitor and prevent child marriages.

The institute, in its memorandum submitted on Saturday to the women and child development minister, stated that child marriages were "alarmingly increasing" in the state. Besides, no cases are initiated against incidents where the rescue of children at the time of marriage has been made.

Institute president Bikash Das said: "Odisha is still figured at the eighth spot in the top 10 states in the country having high incidence of child marriage, according to the National Family Health Survey."

The survey reveals that 21.3 per cent young women in Odisha between the age group of 20 and 24 years (during the time of survey) have been married off before the legal age limit of 18th year.

Malkangiri, Nabarangpur, Mayurbhanj, Koraput, Rayagada and Nayagarh are the top six districts, which have recorded more than 30 per cent women aged between 20 and 24 years married off before the legal age.

"It is evident that child marriage is prevalent in all districts, but women aged between 20 and 24 years being married off before attaining their legal age is mostly found in the scheduled tribe areas. Apart from it, the coastal region such as Bhadrak and Nayagarh also score high in this regard," Das said.

A district-wise analysis shows that more than 10 per cent girls marry before the legal age limit of 18 years in 24 districts here.

The census-2011 identified worrisome districts such as Angul, Balasore, Ganjam, Gajapati, Keonjhar, Kandhamal, Dhenkanal and Boudh with a proportion ranging from 15 to 13 per cent.

"In most of the districts, there is no prosecution at all," Das further said in the memorandum, urging for enforcement of the Child Marriage Prohibition Act, 1960, in the state.

The memorandum stated that there were prosecution in only four of 108 child marriages recorded in the survey.

The institute also expected the state government to provide capacity building training for the child marriage prohibition officers along with display of sign board in a visible place in their offices for easy access.

"A co-ordination office at the state level may be opened up to facilitate interaction between the stakeholders," the memorandum further urged.