India’s progress towards eliminating the practice of child marriage has been stagnating in recent years with a few states continuing to marry their daughters before they turn adults. Through a recently released research study published in The Lancet Global Health, it has come to the fore that the state of West Bengal has topped the list in India with 41.4 percent of girls getting married before the age of 18.
The numbers have been followed by states like Tripura where the rate is 40.2 percent, Bihar at 38.7 percent, Assam at 31.9 percent, Jharkhand at 31.5 percent, Andhra Pradesh at 29.6 percent, and Rajasthan at 21.3 percent. While these numbers indicate child marriage in the case of girls, the numbers showing boys getting married before the age of 21 are highest in two states namely Bihar at 26.6 percent and Rajasthan at 26.4 percent.
Child marriage of girls in India declined significantly from 49%(1993) to 22%(2021). But beyond big national gains, there are pockets of deep worry where this phenomenon is on the rise recently: WB, ML, PB, MN, TR.
— Shamika Ravi (@ShamikaRavi) December 19, 2023
Our latest in @LancetGH ; full paper: https://t.co/Au8NgTn2sI pic.twitter.com/zQrTQtrCVN
In the state of West Bengal, around 41.4 percent of girls get married before turning 18 whereas 20.1 percent of boys get married before they attain the age of 21. The percentage of girl child marriage in the state has however increased from the year 2016 when the rate was at 40.8 percent. The constantly increasing numbers are worrisome given that child marriages are a human rights violation and a recognized form of sexual and gender-based violence.
Under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 (PCMA), 18 is the legal age of marriage for girls, and 21 for boys in India. Despite several years of this Act being in existence, the early marriage of children continues to be practiced in West Bengal. As per the report, the districts with the highest incidence of child marriage in West Bengal are also those where trafficking is rampant.
The research report further revealed that the state of Andhra Pradesh has topped in child marriages among the South Indian states. According to the findings till the year 2021, approximately more than one in every four women in Andhra Pradesh married before the age of 18. In Telangana, more than one in every five girls married before reaching the marriageable age of 18. The numbers were followed by Telangana at 23.4 percent, Karnataka at 20.5 percent, Tamil Nadu at 12.7 percent, and Kerala at 6.2 percent.
Girl child marriage increased in 6 states, more common in Union territories
In India overall, as per the study, one in five girls and roughly one in six boys got married before the legally acceptable ages of 18 and 21, respectively. These findings represent nothing but an interruption in progress toward eradicating the terrible problem of child marriage.
The research also indicates that child marriage has become more common in some states and Union Territories (UTs) between 2016 and 2021. Girl child marriages increased in six states, including Manipur, Punjab, Tripura, and West Bengal. In comparison, boy child marriages increased in eight states, including Chhattisgarh, Goa, Manipur, and Punjab, the researchers noticed after analyzing data from India’s National Family Health Surveys from 1993 to 2021.
However, the research team, which included Harvard University scholars and those affiliated with the Indian government, stated that child marriage had declined nationally. Underage girls’ marriage rates fell from 49 percent in 1993 to 22 percent in 2021, while boys’ marriage rates fell from 7 percent in 2006 to 2 percent in 2021. However, progress towards ending child marriage continues to stagnate between 2016 and 2021, according to the researchers.
Child marriage is a violation of human rights and a recognized form of sexual and gender-based violence. Child marriage, defined as marriage before the age of 18, is both a cause and a result of social and economic vulnerability, leading to a variety of negative health outcomes that limit boys and girls’ ability to reach their full developmental potential.
According to UNICEF, child marriage was often the result of entrenched gender inequality, making girls disproportionately affected by the practice. Ending child marriage will be crucial to achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5, which aims to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls by 2030.
Research Methodology and Conclusion
The researchers considered men and women aged 20-24 who were married before turning 18 in their analysis, even though the marriage of boys under the age of 21 is considered child marriage in India. The analysis included more than 13.4 million women and more than 1.4 million men.
According to the researchers, increased global attention to ending child marriage has led many countries to pass legislation prohibiting the practice. They maintained that in India, the policy response to child marriage included a legal prohibition intended to directly prevent child marriage, referring to the 2006 Prohibition of Child Marriage Act. The Act raised the legal marriage age for men to 21 years and for women to 18 years.
The researchers also noted that additional programs and policies were put in place to address the underlying causes of the practice, with an emphasis on lowering economic vulnerability, raising girls’ educational opportunities, and extending social protections.
They stated that state governments had been critical partners in bolstering efforts to end child marriage. Using Uttar Pradesh as an example, they stated that the state achieved a dramatic decrease in the prevalence and headcount for child marriage in the case of girls. Other states, such as West Bengal, they claimed, had been struggling.
There are still evidence gaps in the global elimination of child marriage, with interventions such as cash transfers showing poor success in certain geographies, such as India. The report called the observed stagnation in child marriage abolition at the state and UT levels in India a big concern and said that re-igniting progress in this direction was required to meet SDG Target 5.3.
