Child marriages in India reduced from 47.4 % to 23.3 % in 2019-21 since the introduction of the Prevention of Child Marriage Act in 2006, according to the Union Women and Child Development Minister Annapurna Devi. The Minister said that around 2 lakh child marriages were prevented in the past year, even as one in five girls in India is married before reaching the legal age of 18 years.
Bal-Vivah Mukht Bharat
The Bal-Vivah Mukht Bharat Abhiyan was launched recently by the Government. which will primarily focus on the seven high-burden states – West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Tripura, Assam, and Andhra Pradesh– and nearly 300 high-burden districts where child marriage rates are high as compared to the national average, to make India a Child Marriage Free Nation by 2030. The campaign urges states and Union territories to create specific action plans with the goal of reducing child marriage rates to below 5% by 2029.
She added that while laws like the Prevention of Child Marriage Act are instrumental, “we must also focus on raising awareness because legislation alone cannot eradicate this issue”, emphasizing the role of various stakeholders in The Bal Vivah Mukt Bharat campaign.
Three girls are forced into child marriage every minute
A Non-Profit Group, the "Child Free Marriage Network", found out in a study that about three girls are forced into child marriage every minute in India. The study found out the putrid reality of the actual figures being more than the reported ones. According to the Census estimates, 16 lakh child marriages take place every year in India.
Still The Same Thinking?
The tradition of child marriage has been practised in India from time immemorial and is righteously viewed as bringing prosperity to the family, protecting, and securing the lives of children, moreover, it is viewed as an instrument for evading social stigma, ensuring the safety of the girl child and an object to maintain the sexual purity. It is celebrated and labelled as sacred and divine.
In 1886, Rukhmabai, one of India's first practising physicians of colonial India, said, “This wicked practice of child marriage has destroyed the happiness of my life. It comes between me and the things which I prize above all others – study and mental cultivation”.
150 years later, how much better we have done?
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