High prevalence — Odisha, Assam, Bihar, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand and WB
Bengal tops the list, next is Bihar
NFHS-4 → 27% of the women aged 20-24 were married before the age of 18
40% of world’s child marriage in India
Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 — only around 300 cases are reported every year — why low?
Parents many a time say its due to love marriage — generally children are not prosecuted — parents present themselves as ‘helpless’, ‘victimised’ and ‘ignorant’
Societal pressure — no one dares to report — social ostracisation
Why early marriages?
To ‘preserve the chastity of girls’ — early marriage
Unmarried girl is a ‘liability’.
Negative Risk
Health Risk — early pregnancy is detrimental to the health of mother → mother mortality rate
Poor in health and underdeveloped infant
Domestic Violence
Education and development — adversely affected
Lost talent — loss to society
Solutions and Way Forward
NHRC — creating opportunity for continuation of girls’ education and skill development to make them employable
National Plan of Action for Children (2016-21)
National Policy for Children, 2013 — did not provide a clear mandate and it is due for an official review in 2018 — amend!!
Judicial — SC made sexual relations with a girl between 15 to 18 years, even if under marriage a criminal offence — at par with the POSCO Act 2012
Urban areas — more child marriages than rural areas. Why?
Rural → Urban Migration — more and more ppl are moving to urban areas — they are there doing child marriage
Increase crime rate against women in urban areas — to preserve the chastity and purity of girls
What may earlier be a rural or transition area, has now become an urban area — thus earlier rural share of child marriage has now shifted to urban share.
