Bhubaneswar: Aiming at supporting the state’s goal of becoming child marriage-free by 2030, Ama Police Samitis, the community policing committees operating at the police station level, will now be tasked with identifying children vulnerable to the social evil in five western Odisha districts that continue to report a high incidence of the practice.The northern range of Odisha police this week issued comprehensive guidelines directing police stations in Sambalpur, Bargarh, Balangir, Jharsuguda and Subarnapur districts to actively involve Ama Police Samitis in preventing child marriage and other crimes against children.Under the new guidelines, a key responsibility assigned to the committees is the preparation and regular updating of a database of vulnerable children in their respective villages. The samitis have also been asked to maintain marriage-monitoring registers, recording details of all weddings in villages, including the names and ages of the bride and groom, their parents, and dates of birth and marriage. The measure is aimed at helping authorities detect and prevent underage marriages.The inspectors in charge (IICs) of police stations in the five districts have been asked to ensure that Ama Police Samitis meet at least once every fortnight and place adolescent empowerment and prevention of child marriage on the agenda. To broaden community participation, police have instructed the IICs to involve traditional leaders, peer educators such as Sakhi Sahelis and Sakha Bandhus, and frontline workers in planning and implementation of child protection activities. The meetings may also include representatives of gram panchayat-level child protection committees, gaon kalyan samitis, panchayati raj institutions, SHGsand school management committees.To ensure coordinated action against child marriage, Odisha police has directed the formation of district-level core committees headed by the SPs concerned in the five western districts. The committees will bring together key stakeholders from various govt departments and child protection agencies, including the district social welfare officer, child protection unit, child welfare committee, Childline and other civil society organisations.According to the guidelines, the core committee will meet once every two months at the SPs’ office to review ongoing activities, assess progress and formulate future action plans. The meetings are expected to provide a platform for systematic monitoring of interventions aimed at reducing child marriage and improving child protection mechanisms.The guidelines cite NFHS-5 data showing that 20.5% of girls in Odisha were married before attaining adulthood, with prevalence particularly high in tribal-dominated and western districts. While the incidence declined by 1.9 percentage points in NFHS-6, the survey indicates that child marriage continues to persist in several tribal and western Odisha districts, where migration and child labour remain significant concerns.Further, each police station has been asked to identify at least five villages for development as child-friendly villages.