KHPT organized a two-day consultation workshop in Gadag from August 22-23 to identify strategies to strengthen Kavalu Samitis (Vigilance Committee for Women and Child Protection) in the Gram Panchayats. The workshop participants included Gram Panchayat functionaries, beat police, Women and Child Development department staff, and School Development and Monitoring Committee members.

The workshop included group discussions and activities such as ‘problem tree analysis’ on the role of Kavalu Samitis in addressing issues such as child marriage, child labour, teenage pregnancy, malnutrition, violence, trafficking, school dropouts, and the devadasi system. Using the insights from the workshop, KHPT will create a training curriculum to orient and train Kavalu Samiti members for effective functioning in the gram panchayats.

Kavalu Samitis were instituted by the Government of Karnataka in 2019 by merging three committees-  the Committee to Prevent Trafficking in Women and Children,  the Child Marriage Prevention and Coordination Committee and the Child Protection Committee. The objective of their formation was to create a more streamlined and effective committee at the Gram Panchayat level to address critical issues related to women and children.