India Needs More Innovative Methods to Combat the Problem of Child Marriage

A UNICEF Poster About Prevention of Child Marriage

In the globe, India has one of the highest rates of child marriage.

According to activists and experts:

Despite the legislative focus on child marriage, implementation has been inadequate in addressing the core reasons and has failed to make a significant impact on its abolition.

The COVID-19 pandemic also increases the potential of more child marriages as a result of school closures and economic hardship.

Despite legal measures, tradition,culture and financial factors continue to support child marriage.

Early marriage increases the chances of girls dropping out of school, as well as the risks of exploitation, sexual violence, domestic abuse, and death after childbirth and during this COVID pandemic incidents of child marriage

Child marriage is sometimes blamed on poverty and inadequate female literacy, however the practise is also common in affluent households.

Central and State governments should be more creative in spreading information, including through social media and school textbooks, and even at a young age.

Legal authority should be granted to religious and cultural institutions, as well as government school teachers, to rescue children who are at risk of child marriage.

Some recent state government initiatives have aided, such as a cash incentive in which the state transfers a sum of money to the girl’s bank account if she continues in school and unmarried at the age of 18.