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Child marriages are meant to "protect" girls, they ruin their lives instead.
India’s refusal to co-sponsor a United Nations Human Rights Council
(UNHRC) resolution recognising child, early and forced marriage as a
human rights violation has put the spotlight once again on the
prevalence in the country of this terrible social practice. India did
support the UNHRC resolution which was unanimously adopted, but the
country was shown in a poor light when it refused to join more than a
100 countries in co-sponsoring the resolution.
The official reluctance to take the lead in an international forum
comes at a time when, at home, the ever active and powerful khap
panchayats are clamouring to lower the age of marriage to “protect” girl
children and there are efforts by certain Muslim bodies in Kerala to
exempt girls from the prohibition against child marriage – when the girl
is under 18 or the boy under 21. The continuation of child marriage in
India despite a social campaign against it that is nearly 200 years old
reflects the complexity of the phenomenon. The underlying reasons – if
indeed they can be called reasons – are many: poverty, the low or even
no value accorded to female education and health, the worry about having
to pay a larger dowry if the girl is in her 20s, the fear of social
disapproval if a daughter is not married, and, most significantly, the
desire to control female sexuality. What adds to this mix is the support
that fundamentalists (of different religious hues) express for child
marriage. While these certainly are humongous odds to battle against,
successive Indian governments have hardly shown the will and commitment
needed to end the practice.
The statistics of the extent of child marriage in the country are
disturbing. According to the National Family Health Survey (2005-06), as
much as 46% of women in the 18-29-year age group were married before
they turned 18, in spite of many laws on the statute books, including
the most recent one, the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (2006) which
bans marriage of girls below 18 years.
Child marriages perpetrate violence on children and lead to more
violence as the girl grows into womanhood. The under-age bride is
vulnerable to domestic and sexual abuse, her health suffers irreparable
damage because she bears children when her body is not prepared for
pregnancy, she is more likely to die at childbirth than women who are
married after 18 and give birth in their 20s, and the children she gives
birth to are more likely to suffer from low birth weight. The Ministry
of Health’s
Family Welfare Statistics 2011 showed that almost all
states had registered a decline in underaged brides between 2005 and
2009. But too little is happening and what is happening is taking place
too slowly, for it is estimated that India still has the largest number
of child brides in the world.
A study over two years in Bihar and Jharkhand by a human rights
organisation, Breakthrough, came up with two significant findings: One,
fathers (the main decision-makers in this regard) looked upon child
marriage as guaranteeing their daughters’ safety and, two, the practice
was driven by a strong fear of female sexual promiscuity and the ensuing
“dishonour”. Considering the ill-effects on the girl in such cases,
safety and honour are being bought at a very high price and obviously
without the girl’s consent. Archbishop Desmond Tutu as chair of The
Elders has time and again pointed out that child marriage occurs because
“we men allow it – fathers, village chiefs, religious leaders,
decision-makers – most are male”. Other organisations working worldwide
engage grandmothers and religious leaders in efforts to make families
aware of how early marriages blight young female lives permanently.
While the multi-pronged efforts of civil society organisations are
significant, they cannot fill the void created by a lack of political
will and government initiative. Instances of child marriage prohibition
officers (CMPOs) who manage to stop early marriages show that they feel
empowered to act when the administration not only holds them accountable
but is also supportive in preventive campaigns. In states like
Jharkhand where child marriages cross the 50% mark, the CMPOs note that
underage female school dropouts are married, while girls who continue
through to high school are not. This has led them to demand that the
government increase the number of schools for girls.
Women’s well-being, especially education (including vocational and
job skills) and health, is dependent on state policies, the effective
implementation of these policies, and the sensitivity and commitment of
state agencies in enforcing the relevant laws. Women’s well-being cannot
be held hostage to electoral compulsions or communal and caste factors.
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