Child Marriages in India

Child marriage has been an important social issue in India for a long time. It has its root in traditional, cultural and religious practices. The caste system is also another factor to have contributed to the growth of child marriage. Castes, which are based on birth and heredity, do not allow two people to marry if they are from different castes.

Sarda Act

The Child Marriage Restraint Act 1929, also called the Sarda Act was enacted by the British Government due to efforts of freedom fighter Har Bilas Sarda. The act had prohibited child marriage in India for the first time. It was amended in 1940 and 1978 to continue raising the ages of male and female children and was finally repealed with the enactment of 2006 act.

Legislative Action: Child Marriage Act, 2006

According to this act, Child marriage is a non-bailable and cognizable offence with two-year rigorous jail term a fine of Rs. 1 lakh. Persons, including parents or guardians or association of persons, who did any act to promote child marriage or permitted it to be solemnised or negligently failed to prevent it, would be imprisoned under Sections 9, 10 and 11 of the Act.

The duty of the Child Marriage Prohibition Officers was to counsel the residents of the locality not to indulge in promoting, helping, aiding or allowing child marriages, create awareness and sensitise the community to the ill-effects of child marriages.

The IPC fails to address the discrepancy in the age of consent at the time of rape and the age of consent for rape within a marriage, which constitutes discrimination against women – especially married women and has severe implications for child marriages in India.

Executive Action against Child Marriage

• The Government of India introduced several policy initiatives to address the problem of early marriages.
• The National Population Policy 2000 promotes delayed marriage for girls.
• The National Policy for the Empowerment of Women, 2001, recognises the critical need of men and women to suitably address the issues of early marriage and aims to eliminate child marriage by 2010.
• The National Youth Policy 2003 calls for sensitisation among adolescents with regard to the correct age for marriage.
• The conditional cash transfer schemes and schemes related to education of girl child {Sukanya Samriddhi Account/ Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao}, Dhan Laxmi Scheme etc.

Rajiv Gandhi Scheme for Empowerment of Adolescent Girls/Sabla

It has been launched as a comprehensive intervention for adolescent girls in the age-group of 11-18, with a focus on out of school girls. The scheme is aimed at empowerment of Adolescent girls. The adolescent girls aged 10–19 years constitute almost 47 per cent of the total population of adolescents in India. Most of the women marry before the legal age of 18. It addresses the problems of dropout rate of females, female literacy rate, girls married before the age of 18 and female work participation

Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojana

The scheme covers all pregnant and lactating women 19 years of age and above for first two live births are entitled for benefits under the scheme except all Government/PSUs.

What then needs to be done?

The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 has now given the child bride and bridegroom the right to get their marriage declared void. The 205th report of the Law Commission recommended that child marriage below the age of 16 be made void. Registration of all marriages is made mandatory.  Alongside the legal measures, investment in community based programmes and a service is essential. It is the parents of the girls, community elders and religious authority figures who need to be convinced of the risks of child marriages and the advantages of educating the girl child while delaying the age of marriage.