Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Citing the report by India Child Protection (ICP), AAS foundation highlighted the important role of legal action and prosecution in ending child marriage in India, Indore's NGO AAS said that legal action and legal intervention are the keys to achieving the goal of ending child marriage by 2030.
Highlighting the data of recently foiled child marriages in the city, AAS has cancelled 57 child marriages in one year. Out of these 57 marriages, seven child marriages in the last one year with the help of district administration and 50 child marriages through community counselling with the help of Gram Panchayat were stopped.
The report titled ëTowards Justice: Ending Child Marriage' has been prepared by the research team of India Child Protection. AAS and Child Protection Fund are working as partner organisations of Child Marriage Free India to end child marriage from the country by 2030. According to the National Family Health Survey-5, the rate of child marriage in Indore was 21.7 while the national average is 23.3. The organisation appealed to the government to ensure punishment to the culprits so that people can develop a fear of law against child marriage.
According to the current rate, India may take 19 years to settle pending cases of child marriage. The ICP report 'Towards Justice: Ending Child Marriage' underlines the need for immediate steps to be taken by the judicial system across the country to end child marriage. According to the report, a total of 3,563 cases of child marriage were registered across the country in 2022, out of which only 181 cases were successfully settled. That is, the rate of pending cases is 92 per cent. At the current rate, it will take 19 years to settle these 3,365 cases.
Wasim Iqbal, Director of AAS said, 'This report of India Child Protection clearly underlines the importance of legal action and prosecution. We are working tirelessly to spread awareness against child marriage and ensure that families and communities are made aware that child marriage is a crime. Also, where persuasion does not work to stop child marriages, we use legal interventions. Enforcement of law is the key to ending child marriage and we all need to work together to ensure its implementation.'
Discussing the effective results of Assam government's legal strategy to prevent child marriages in the state, Ravi Kant, Convenor of Child Marriage Free India said, 'This report proves that legal actions have the most decisive role in eliminating child marriage and the Assam model is an important step in the right direction. Now we need to take it forward and implement it across the country so that crimes against children can be ended.'
Ravi Kant further said, 'The very low rate of conviction in such cases is a matter of concern. In the year 2022, only 11 per cent of child marriage cases resulted in conviction, while the conviction rate in other crimes against children during the same period was 34 per cent. This highlights the need for thorough investigation and court hearing in child marriage cases. This, apart from acting as a deterrent, will also signal to communities that child marriage is a serious crime with strong legal consequences.'
