Child marriages: Still a knotty issue

Indore (Madhya Pradesh): This year 27 child marriages were stopped in Indore district in the past three months and four FIRs were lodged.

Effective compliance with Child Marriage Prohibition Act is being ensured following vigilant monitoring by the flying squads in the district with the help of the Childline.

Programme officer of the Women and Child Development Department, Ramnivas Budheliya, said, “Women and Child Development Department is taking strict action against culprits regularly by forming various teams to prevent child marriages. The squad includes the programmes officers, CDPOs, police and the Childline.” People are being made aware of the adverse effects of child marriage. 

Ramniwas said, “Twenty-seven child marriages were stopped in the district and 4 FIRs were registered last week under the Child Marriage Prohibition Act, 2006. An FIR has been lodged against the friends of the groom, the groom, the relatives and those who solemnise the marriages.” 

No end in sight

Despite the department of Women and Child Development’s tall claims, last year, 42 cases (of child marriages) were reported, while in the past three months the count is already pegged at 27. Budheliya said, “The flying squads have been working relentlessly for the past four months and have already saved 10 victims. Other complaints which were registered have been solved ASAP.”

MORE NEEDS TO BE DONE

“Despite running awareness campaigns, it will take time to deter people from organising child marriages. In some cases, it has been revealed that people want to get rid of the responsibility of Kanyadaan. The government, for sure, is not taking strict measures to stop the marriages and has no significant role in making people aware,” said Padma Shri Janak Palta

McGilligan

A Statistical Analysis of Child Marriage in India: Based on Census 2011

*This report was released on June 1, 2017, by the government of India’s National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, New Delhi, and Young Lives India, a Delhi-based initiative part of an international project studying childhood poverty by a team at the University of Oxford, UK.

*The report identifies 70 districts in the country that account for 21 percent of its child marriages, spread across 13 states: Arunachal Pradesh; Andhra Pradesh (including Telangana which attained statehood in 2014); Assam; Bihar; Gujarat; Haryana; Jharkhand; Karnataka; Madhya Pradesh; Maharashtra; Rajasthan; Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

*Census 2011 notes that 69.5 lakh boys and 51.6 lakh girls have been married before the legal age of 18 for girls and 21 for boys.

*Census 2011 data states that Rajasthan has the highest incidence of child marriage both among boys and girls. About 8.3 percent of girls have been ‘ever-married’ between the ages of 10-17, and 8.6 percent of boys between the ages of 10-20.

*The report notes a primary reason for child marriage among girls to be the importance attributed to a woman’s virginity and its perceived relationship to family ‘honour’. Girls are married before the legal age of 18 out of fear for their safety, the fear of sexual assault or anxiety about premarital sex.

Published on: Saturday, December 24, 2022, 12:32 AM IST