Child marriage

Even though the practice of child marriage is decreasing slowly, its prevalence continues to subsist in India. The practice is highest in the eastern and central regions of the nation. Besides, rural, poor and uneducated girls for all over the nation continue to be highly vulnerable to child marriage. According to a 2009 UNICEF report, ‘State of the World’s Children’, 47% of Indian women between the age of 20 and 24 were married before attaining the legal age of 18. Of this, 56% belonged to the rural areas. The report also stated an alarming fact that 40% of the total child marriages cases in the world occur in India.

Child marriage is a violation of basic human rights. Consummation at a young age affects the health of the girl as well as the children born out of the marriage. Empirical medical studies have proven that adolescent mothers have greater probability of experiencing gynecological complications like obstetric fistula. In India, the Child Marriage Restraint Act was enforced in 1929 to curb the practice. The legal marriageable age under the act was set at 12 years, which was later revised to 18 years, in 1978.