are child marriages still happening ?

About half of India's girls are married off before they become women.

Child marriage is still widespread in India, which is home to a third of the world's child brides. About half of Indian women were married before they turned 18. Child marriage is a violation of child rights, and has a negative impact on physical growth, health, mental and emotional development, and education opportunities.

It also affects society as a whole since child marriage reinforces a cycle of poverty and perpetuates gender discrimination, illiteracy and malnutrition as well as high infant and maternal mortality rates.

Child marriage impacts on almost all facets of reaching the Millennium Development Goals. It is for this reason that combating the problem is a key feature of the post-2015 MDG agenda and a major priority for UNICEF in India.

Both girls and boys are affected by child marriage, but girls are affected in much larger numbers and with greater intensity. Child marriage can be seen across the country but it is far higher in rural than in urban areas. Girls from poorer families, scheduled castes and tribes, and with lower education levels are more likely to marry at a younger age.

Although child marriage is declining, the rate of decline is slow. Broad, multi-faceted strategies are needed to target different aspects of the problem, including deep-rooted social norms and behaviours, the perceived low value of girls, limited access to education, exposure to violence, restricted freedom of movement and economic vulnerability.

UNICEF has been working tirelessly to prevent child marriage across the states where it works. Partnerships with government and civil society are a crucial part of these efforts, but much more can be done.

Challenges to eradicating child marriage

There are many causes of child marriage in India and multiple barriers to its elimination. Poverty, weak enforcement of laws, patriarchal social norms intended to ensure family honour are significant factors that increase the risk of girl being married off while still a child. Also, girls from poor households are more likely to marry as children, since marriage becomes a solution to reduce the size of the family. The cost of marriage plays a big role in families sliding further into poverty, and these high costs contribute to girls being forced to marry when other ceremonies are taking place in the family or when older siblings are being married.

Here are some other major reasons for child marriage:

Limited education opportunities, low quality of education, inadequate infrastructure, lack of transport and therefore concerns about girls' safety while travelling to school significantly contribute to keeping girls out of school and therefore tend to favour child marriage.

Although there is widespread awareness of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006 (PCMA) and the illegality of child marriage, individually people feel that the traditions and norms are stronger than the law and the institutions and rarely report cases. On top of this, there is limited capacity among officials and lack of willingness to go against community decisions, since officials are themselves part of the community.

Girls are often seen as a liability with limited economic role. Women's work is confined to the household and is not valued. In addition, there is the problem of dowry. Despite the fact that dowry has been prohibited for five decades (Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961), it is still common for parents of girls in India to give gifts to the groom and /or his family either in cash or kind.

The dowry amount increases with the age and the education level of the girl . Hence, the "incentive" of the system of dowry perpetuates child marriage.

Law enforcement to prohibit child marriage is relatively weak. Limited detailed knowledge on how to apply laws and little understanding of the consequences of the laws, as well as limited trust in institutions enforcing them, undermines the implementation of the PCMA.

The families and girls who might benefit from social protection programmes are not always aware of them and these schemes are often limited to providing cash transfers without the accompanying messages to address the multi-dimensional nature of child marriage. The fallout of this is that cash transfers tend to perpetuate dowry, since parents use the grant for that purpose as soon as the girl turns 18 years old.

Big Picture

Child marriage is widespread across India, with nearly half of brides married as girls . While there has been a decline in the incidence of child marriage nationally (from 54 per cent in 1992-93 to 33 per cent today) and in nearly all states, the pace of change remains slow , especially for girls in the age group 15-18 years.

Child marriage is more prevalent in rural areas (48 per cent) than in urban areas (29 per cent) . There are also variations across different groups, particularly excluded communities, castes and tribes - although some ethnic groups, such as tribal groups, have lower rates of child marriage compared with the majority population.

In general, rates of child marriage are highest in the central and western parts of India and lower in the eastern and southern parts of the country. In certain states, such as in Bihar and Rajasthan, approximately 60 per cent of females (aged 20-24) marry as children.

Other states that have an incidence of child marriage higher than national average are: Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and Tripura . However, even in states with overall lower prevalence of child marriage, there are often pockets of high prevalence.

Girls married as children are more likely to:

Drop out of school, have a low-paid job and limited decision-making power at home. A girl with 10 years of education has a six times lower chance of being pushed into marriage before she is 18.

Face violence, abuse and exposure to HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases because they have fewer skills and less negotiating power. Nearly 13 per cent of married girls between 15-19 years of age experience sexual violence by their husbands compared with 10 per cent of women experiencing such violence between the age group of 30-39.

Become pregnant as adolescents. One in six girls begins childbearing between the ages of 15 and 19 years . Early pregnancy increases the risk of delivery complications and maternal and child mortality. The Infant Mortality Rate is 76 per cent for women aged less than 20 years, compared with 50 per cent for women aged 20-29 years

Girls married as children are more likely to:

Drop out of school have a low-paid job and limited decision-making power at home. A girl with 10 years of education has a six times lower chance of being pushed into marriage before she is 18.

Face violence, abuse and exposure to HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases because they have fewer skills and less negotiating power. Nearly 13 per cent of married girls between 15-19 years of age experience sexual violence by their husbands compared with 10 per cent of women experiencing such violence between the age group of 30-39.

Become pregnant as adolescents. One in six girls begins childbearing between the ages of 15 and 19 years . Early pregnancy increases the risk of delivery complications and maternal and child mortality. The Infant Mortality Rate is 76 per cent for women aged less than 20 years, compared with 50 per cent for women aged 20-29 years.

- See more at: https://unicef.in/Whatwedo/30/Child-Marriage#sthash.FElvCh8s.dpuf

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/rajasthan-gears-up-to-prevent-child-marriages-on-akshaya-tritiya/article7096248.ece

JAIPUR, April 13, 2015